Red Sox "Closing In" On Two Year Deal For Jonny Gomes?

Well, forget "focusing in", according to Scott Lauber the Red Sox could now be close to signing a two-year deal with outfielder Jonny Gomes.

There's not much more to say on Gomes than was already said here. To make a long story short, he's a very risky move, bouncing back-and-forth between All-Star level at the plate and bottom-of-the-barrel quadruple-A talent with some regularity. His numbers last year were probably in large part due to an inflated BABIP, and about all you can be assured of is that he'll hit lefties, strikeout against everyone, and probably look pretty bad in the field.

If you can't tell, I don't love the sound of this move. Even with the clear red flag of the high BABIP, it's unlikely Gomes is going to come in as a super-cheap platoon bat. He won't be expensive by any means, but he'll probably expect to be starting as much as Ross did last year, and he just doesn't seem that valuable in that role--certainly not as secure as Ross. Of course, on the other hand, Gomes provides a bit of a "what if" factor. Could putting him in Fenway give him a similar boost to what Ross saw and put him over the top?

There's nothing official yet, and it's entirely possible that this is just Lauber getting some signals crossed between closing in on a deal and simply narrowing the field down, but with the kind of resources the Sox have available to them Gomes seems an unnecessary risk. Especially given the fact that his less-risky equivalent is right there in Ross, and Boston already loves him.