Jeremy Hermida signed a one-year deal with the Boston Red Sox bypassing arbitration proceedings. The 25-year-old outfielder was traded to the Red Sox from the Florida Marlins where Hermida played for five years. The deal is worth $3.345 million as left handed batter will add some diversity to the Sox’s batting lineup. Hermida batted .296 in 2007, but also led the league in errors made by right fielders with 9 errors committed. His batting numbers have dropped off since hitting .259 with 47 RBI’s in 2009. On the upside his fielding has progressed since 2007 committing only one error in 120 games last season. Hermida will come into Spring Training as the fourth outfielder behind Mike Cameron, J.D. Drew, and Jacoby Ellsbury. Let’s hope the kid can bring his bat back to 2007 and keep his glove from last year.

The Red Sox have come to an agreement with closer Jonathan Papelbon avoiding arbitration in 2010. The right-hander will be paid $9.5 million in 2010. Papelbon told local media that he would like to end his days playing in a Red Sox uniform likening his ideal career to that of his Yankee rival Mariano Riveria. The Baton Rouge hurler has been one of the best closers in the game in recent memory and it would be a shame should the Sox lose him after next season. Nevertheless, Papelbon’s desire to remain in Boston will hopefully make it easier on management after next season. Here’s to hoping “Pap” stays a Sox for a long time.

What do you expect the Red Sox to do this year? Do you think they’re going to win the Series again? It’s time for us all to put our expectations down. All of you should put your predictions down below in the comments section of this page. I personally expect that the Sox will get back into the Wild Card position. It’s hard for the other divisions to do better than the East to take a division winner and a wild card spot too. So instead, I expect that the Red Sox will get it. I would say that they’ll have about 85-90 wins, second place in the division. Then I would think that they’ll make it to the ALCS, just because they’re due. There have been some weird mistakes during the offseason, but I’d rather have them make the big mistakes now and then have it out of their system before the pivotal moments in the year. So what do you say? Any nay-sayers amongst you? Or any real optimists who expect them to sweep through the playoffs?

There is a controversy that has just arisen about Matsuzaka. He’s been with the Red Sox for awhile now, but it is unfortunate that he didn’t let them know the extent of his injuries last spring after the World Baseball Classic. There were a few suggestions that the team needed to check him out a little bit more. Apparently in an interview to a Japanese magazine, Daisuke Matsuzaka said that he was a little bit hurting, or something like that. The Boston Red Sox just found out about it and they aren’t so happy about it. They will be talking to him, his agent, and many other characters in this event. They want to know if communication broke down and, if so, how.

Yesterday was the Hall of Fame voting for the 2010 class and the winner was, unsurprisingly, a Red Sox player. But it is a little bit surprising which one it was. Andre Dawson, who only played with the team for a year or two and was injured most of the time, is the newest member of baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He will be honored in a ceremony in a few months. He definitely deserves it, although his actual time of performance was really low. He had 12 knee surgeries during his career and it sidelined him for such a long time that most fans only got to see short moments of his legendary ability. When he was playing great, he was amazing. He deserves it, though I suppose the Red Sox can’t take much credit for his election.

There are rising concerns about the level of the roster that the current Red Sox team will put on the field this year. I mean, we play in the same division as the Yankees, but we don’t have the kind of push that they do in their batting. Our pitching is decent and our fielding is getting better. But can’t we get the big bats here too? They have made some big changes over the last few years and especially this offseason. They have invested some impressive resources in their lineup this year, but there’s nothing really big in it as far as the batting goes. Hopefully we’ll be able to make some big changes in the next few weeks before Spring Training begins. Either that, or hopefully someone’s bat will simply light it up again this year. Let’s get ready to see it in action!