Honestly I'd just look to dump one of them and put the other in a time share at DH with Ortiz moving forward.
I'd at least try Hanley at first. It should be a much easier position to play. And Papi is actually starting to play like he always has, so I think we can still get production out of them.
As for Sandoval, I hold out hope he can at least be a decent third baseman, even if he never lives up to his contract. And that's better than paying essentially all of his salary to have him play for someone else.
It just seems to me that signing these guys was a classic case of looking at only one part of the equation and forgetting the other parts.
Hanley and Sandoval can hit, sure. But Hanley seems to set a terrible example for the other players and in general probably isn't very good for your team chemistry-wise. Trying to fit him anywhere on the field is a major drag on the team defense. The latter really hurts, especially when you're trying to build a rotation that's based on getting outs via grounders and fly balls.
i am in agreement on the general assessment of the individual defense shown by hanley - sucky to say the least. but it does not follow, as stated, that it hurts a ground ball pitching staff.
first, last time i checked outfielders did not make plays on ground balls in the infield. that is, whether a pitcher is a ground ball pitcher or not, having a great fabulous left fielder or a ****ty left fielder will not matter on ground balls. ground balls are the domain of the infield and by the time a grounder makes it way to the LF the batter will beat ANY throw to first.
xander and sandoval are more important than hanley in this regard. sandoval has been a mighty disappointment on many fronts, but not terrible on defense. xander has over all been better than many expected, actually around league average i think.
the problem with the pitching staff has not been whether or not they have a high percentage of ground balls. the problem has been they are simply pitching poorly, at least early in the year. Look at BABIP, k & bb percentages, line drive %, swings and misses, WHIP, whatever and you can see a general inability to pitch well consistently. in general and as a group, their fast balls are not as fast or not as accurate. their breaking pitches are mediocre and getting hammered or walking people. it only takes a few percentage points to shift the edge from pitcher to batter.
third, back to hanley's defense. he is simply not suited for the outfield and has real difficulty tracking fly balls. the skills of a ss are quite different than those of an outfielder. as a ss hanley was poor, but that was because he had crappy, jeter-esque range or would be lazy. his glove was generally fine, as was his arm. the idea of having him play a short LF in fenway with that arm seemed reasonable at the time.
but watch hanley play left field and you will see he plays it the opposite what manny used to do. manny would play shallow and actually make good plays on short fly balls/bloopers. anything over his head he would concede and simply play it off the wall.
hanley plays deep, as if he is afraid of making a mistake on the ball. lots of bloopers drop in and he doesnt charge them, apparently (and this is a guess) he is afraid of making a mistake. or he feels more comfortable with the play in front of him, as with a ss. in any case, he isnt confident at all.
the trouble with playing deep for hanley is that he is god awful at tracking fly balls, so even when the ball is deep he cant get a read on it. and he cant figure out how to play the wall.
of course, a good deal of his amateurish fielding is because he refuses to take fielding practice, citing possible injury.
so the only time he gets to "practice" fielding is in real, life games. a clear recipe for poor fielding to be sure.
so, maybe a move to first would be better. or maybe not. 1b has a LOT more chances for error and the errors are generally more impactful. on the other hand, having poor range for hanley wont be as bad at 1b as it is at ss. but he would be learning his second position in two years and he already said he doesnt want to play 1b. that is, he prefers OF to 1b and he seemingly has no confidence in his ability to play LF. color me dubious.
quite the dilemma for the sox. people here say trade hanely. fine, but how do you trade a DH who makes around $20,000,000? unless the sox eat a hefty chunk of the salary (at least $10,000,000), or staple multiple young players to his back, no one else will take him.
a few final points in this post in this interesting thread, rodriquez is probably a very good #3 pitcher as a career, with some years as #2. not bad at all. but at slots #4 and #5 the sox will field pitchers with above average WAR (or fWAR, your choice.) that is, rodriquez should at least hold his own and probably be above opponent average and so will the #4 & 5 pitchers. meaning the sox can win these matchups regularly with their # 3 through #5.
the trick now is to get a pair of very good starters for slots #1 and 2 (buchholz' health worries me. he cant be counted upon long term it seems) to match opponent's #1 and #2. over the course of a season, it is the 3-5 spots that may carry the team to more victories.