I never thought that he was a good idea. No, I did not believe that he would be a significant upgrade and he has not been. He has remained healthy and that is about it.
He will most certainly NOT become a better fielder as he get older. Especially with all that fat he carts around. To believe so is to deny logic and physiology.
He may become closer to what his career numbers have been. Big f***ing deal. He does not hit for power and worse he does not hit for XBH which is very hard to do in Fenway if you can make contact at a decent rate. He almost never walks.
I just do not see any value in continuing this mistake for 4 more years. Maybe you do but that does not make it a good choice for this team.
I have my opinion and I will continue to state it. Although I don't want to start sounding like Fred. It seems that most of the time Fat Boy screws up it is just ignored and accepted as okay because he is an "upgrade from Middlebrooks".
Since I watch all the games and I am on most GTs I see no reason not to be allowed to call his poor play out when it happens. The real problem is that he f***s up at least once in each game. Naturally you will become bored by my comments.