The Red Sox haven't accomplished much this winter, but -- apparently -- not for lack of trying.
According to a Tweet from ESPN.com's Buster Olney, the Red Sox were one of a number of teams who contacted the Miami Marlins about their old farmhand, disgruntled shortstop Hanley Ramirez. But the talks, in the words of Olney, gained "no traction".
Ramirez -- sent by the Sox to the Marlins in November 2005 as part of the trade that brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston -- is being moved off shortstop now that Miami has Jose Reyes, and he's not happy about it. The Sox have been looking for a long-term solution at short since the day they shoved Nomar Garciaparra out the door, and there were many who thought there was a fit between Boston and Miami.
Whether or not the offensively gifted but defensively challenged Ramirez, whose attitude sometimes isn't much better than his glove, was the solution is an open question. And now, apparently, we'll never know the answer.