Coco Crisp should start in center for Red Sox

Terry Francona told reporters today that Coco Crisp will be the incumbant center fielder, meaning that Ellsbury will have to fight for his roster spot.

Seeing how all of New England has a horrible man crush on Ellsbury, this probably won’t be a popular decision. Tito will surely be criticized in the media once the season starts and Coco hits the inevitable slump. But this is the decision I hoped they would make.

Crisp is still on the trading block, and at this point it seems unlikely that he will be traded by the end of spring training. Unless Billy Beane wants to take a gamble now and hope that he can flip Crisp at the trade deadline, there aren’t a lot of potential fits out there at the moment.

In the end, what the Red Sox get from Crisp will depend on how valuable he is to them. When a team trades one player for another, the players that switch hands are essentially compensation to the other team for their loss. If the Red Sox are only giving up a backup outfielder, then they aren’t going to get a whole lot in return.

Keeping Crisp in the starting nine builds his trade value.

As an added bonus to starting Crisp in center, the Red Sox will retain control of Ellsbury for an extra year if he stays in Pawtucket until May 15th.

It’s nice to see the club making another logical decision. It’s a good time to be a Red Sox fan.

Red Sox include Ellsbury in offer for Santana

The Red Sox have decided to include Jacoby Ellsbury in their offer to the Twins for Johan Santana.

Interestingly, the Red Sox removed Jon Lester from their offer when they added Ellsbury. If the proposal is accepted and Santana joins the club, Boston would have 7 quality starters slotted in their rotation, providing Theo with plenty of ammo to make another big acquisition.

The current proposal probably looks something like this: Ellsbury/Masterson/Lowrie

If Ellsbury goes to Minnesota, Crisp would likely remain in Boston next season.

The Yankees have reportedly given the Twins until the end of the day tomorrow to make a decision.