What Williams learned in 2014

We've got lots of action on the hot stove this morning. And all of it is coming out of Boston.

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reported last night that Hanley Ramirez is flying to Beantown today to finalize a contract with the Red Sox, one that will be in the five-year, $90 million range.

Ramirez got his start in the Red Sox organization before being traded to the Marlins in the winter of 2005 in the deal that sent Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston. Now he's apparently bringing it full circle.

In addition to the Ramirez deal, CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman reports this morning that the Red Sox have also agreed to terms with third baseman Pablo Sandoval on a five-year deal that will pay the Kung Fu Panda somewhere around $100 million.

After freeing themselves of a number of bad contracts in the last couple of years, the Red Sox apparently are now jumping back into the free agent pool with both feet.

These deals will send two power hitters out of the National League West and into the American League East. And both new Red Sox have crushed the Nationals in their careers.

Sandoval has hit .330 with a .370 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage and 20 RBIs in 32 regular season games against Washington, while Ramirez has posted a ridiculous .336/.418/.623 slash line with 30 RBIs in 121 games against the Nats.

The Nats will head to Fenway Park for the Red Sox's home opener in 2015, but luckily for Steve McCatty's pitching staff, they won't have to see Ramirez and Sandoval again the rest of the regular season.

Switching gears a bit, with Matt Williams' first season as a big league manager in the books, one might wonder what he learned over the course of the 2014 campaign.

Williams had experience as a third base coach in the majors. He'd called games from the broadcast booth and had gotten to view things through that mindset. He obviously had a lengthy playing career and knows how players themselves feel about certain situations.

But it's different once you're the skipper. It's different needing the manage the personalities in the clubhouse and make sure you're on top of what's going on with all 25 guys on the roster.

So what did Williams learn during the 2014 season?

"I think that I learned our team," Williams said recently. "Being the new guy, you just don't know. You don't know until you can get there and you can actually roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty. So I think over the course of the season, I learned our guys more and more each day. Got a chance to know them personally. Got a chance to know their families. Got a chance to hear their frustration and share in their success, too. You can't do that unless you're there and unless you're actually in the clubhouse with them and on the bench with them and feel their pain and their success with them.

"I think that's how it changed. That's how I grew as a manager. The Xs and Os of it will be the Xs and Os of it. And sometimes you make a decision that doesn't go your way. Sometimes it does. But beyond that, if you look at the whole season, I learned our guys. And that doesn't stop, certainly, going forward. I take their feelings and their suggestions seriously. I let them know on my sleeve what I'm feeling. And I think that's a healthy process."

In that sense, Williams will be better off in 2015 than he was this last season. He'll enter spring training knowing all the players who were on the roster in 2014, and those established relationships will help make things smoother next year.

He won't need to wonder how to best motivate Player X or what makes Player Y tick. That experience will be valuable.

"We all, I think, have a long way to go to get to where we want to get to, and I'm excited about rolling those sleeves up again and trying it again," Williams said. "I think everybody is. From talking to the guys this winter that I've talked to, they're eager and they're excited. And they're champing at the bit to get there again. It all starts in February, and we'll strap it on and go again and see if we can get back there."