Improving the Sox defense from within

Looking at recent games, it's clear that the struggling defense will play a significant role in determining the Sox's playoff chances. A number of the losses so far have come from giving up runs because of poor defense. While some parts of it the Sox will just have to live with in order to keep bats in the lineup and arms in the rotation, the infield woes can be addressed. 

We know that Mark Kotsay and Jed Lowrie are both close to returning to the team. While Kotsay will probably displace Bailey, it's not clear what will happen when Lowrie is ready to return. Much as I'd like to hear Tito and Theo announce Lugo's immediate departure, more realistically, Green will be shipped back to Pawtucket when the time comes.

However, I'd like to offer another scenario Given David Ortiz's total lack of production this season, Mark Kotsay actually produced better numbers offensively last season for the Sox than Ortiz has this year. This suggests it might be possible to replace Ortiz's bat with Kotsay's and not lose any ground offensively. Of course, this requires the diagnosis of "fatigue" or something similar to send Ortiz to the DL again.

If that's the case, then Lowell could be moved to DH, with Kotsay at 1B and Youk to 3B. I think the combination of Kotsay--Pedroia--Lowrie--Youkilis represents the best possible infield defense that the Sox can assemble from internal talent.

The lineup would then be:

Ellsbury (CF)-Pedroia (2B)-Drew (RF)-Youk (3B)-Bay (LF)-{some permutation of Lowell (DH), Catcher, Kotsay (1B), and Lowrie (SS)}

In addition, if Lowell moves to the DH spot, that would leave an additional spot on the bench, which could be filled by Green, Carter, Bailey, van Every, or someone else. You'd gain an extra utility guy to back-up the rest of the roster.

Initially, this would give the Sox a chance to see if a new bat will be necessary, while providing a much-needed boost to the defense. If the defense hasn't improved significantly by early July, there would still be time to engineer a trade. No net offense would be sacrificed as a result of these moves.

Again, the lynchpin of this plan is the ability to move Ortiz off the roster, at least temporarily to the DL. If he is still clogging up a roster (or DH spot), all of this becomes much more difficult to pull off, as the Sox lose a lot of their versatility in the roster. However, given Theo's reluctance to part with any of the prospects he's stashed away in the Sox's "rookie jar," and the likely costs required to bring anyone on board, this seems like the route most likely to improve the team from within.