UPDATE: Red Sox finalizing a 4-year, $88 million deal with Hanley Ramirez, with a vesting option - MLB

UPDATE: Rosenthal now reports that the deal is for four years and $88 million with a vesting option for a fifth year at $22 million.

Sunday, 11:41 PM: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that free agent shortstop Hanley Ramirez will travel to Boston tomorrow to finalize a deal with the Red Sox in the range of five years and $90 million. The signing will be the first of what the Red Sox hope are several key off-season signings. They have also made an offer to free agent starter Jon Lester and third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

Ramirez, 30, had a good year at the plate for the Dodgers in 2014, batting .283/.369/.448 with 13 home runs and 71 RBI. According to Baseball Reference, he has been worth on average 4.5 Wins Above Replacement over the past two seasons.

If the Red Sox end up signing Sandoval as well, the club could try moving Ramirez to the outfield. No matter what, this likely punches Yoenis Cespedes’ ticket out of Boston.

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CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”