Boston Red Sox Express Interest in Free Agent First Basemen Logan Morrison and Carlos Santana
The search for a first baseman has begun for the Boston Red Sox.
NBC Sports Boston's Evan Drellich was the first to report that the Red Sox met with Logan Morrison's agents at the annual general managers meetings in Orlando, Florida on Monday, and the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo said the team met with Carlos Santana's representatives as well.
Of course, these are preliminary discussion and they are just doing their due diligence this offseason by reaching out to the best first basemen available on the open market. According to ESPN, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski have labeled the meetings as "more information [than anything] so far at this time."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Still, both players are interesting options.
Morrison posted a 0.245/0.330/0.433 slash line in 149 games last season, and he also had 85 runs batted in and a career-high 38 home runs in 601 plate appearances. He's a legitimate power threat and that's exactly what the Red Sox lacked last season.
"Morrison is a lefthanded hitter, and if the Sox add multiple bats this winter, they'd do well to add at least one lefty," Drellich said in his report.
Meanwhile, Santana is coming off a season where he slashed 0.259/0.363/0.455 in 154 games. He also had 79 runs batted in and 23 home runs in 557 plate appearances.
Since the Cleveland Indians made a qualifying offer to Santana, the team will have to give up their second-highest pick if they want to sign him. Fortunately, Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski doesn't think that's going to be a problem.
"If two players are exactly even in your mind and one has a qualifying offer and one doesn't, does it make a difference? Yes," Dombrowski said, via MassLive.com.
"But of course it depends on what players you're talking about. ... But I don't think a qualifying offer — if it was somebody that we really wanted and thought was the guy — would make a difference for us," he continued.
