MLB report: Red Sox land Mitch Moreland, draft Jeff Rutledge

The Boston Red Sox are bringing in Mitch Moreland to help replace David Ortiz in the batting order. The club agreed to terms with Moreland on a one-year contract Thursday. He is expected to share time with Hanley Ramirez at first base and designated hitter.

Moreland is a 31-year-old Gold Glove winner who batted .233 with 22 homers and 21 doubles last year with the Texas Rangers. He committed only two errors in 1,103 total chances at first base, leading AL first basemen with a .998 fielding percentage.

“It just shows you that we’re in it and trying to go all out and trying to make that happen,” Moreland told reporters Thursday. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Manager John Farrell said Ramirez will get most of his at-bats at designated hitter,. Moreland will play primarily at first base, where he won a Gold Glove after committing just two errors in 1,103 total chances last season.

“It’s one of those things where I’m just loose, I feel like I’m comfortable,” Moreland said. “It kind of brings the kid out in you when you get to do it at a place like this. That’s what makes it fun, and this place is one of the best at it.”

The Boston Red Sox also reunited with utility infielder Josh Rutledge, taking him in the draft of players left off major league rosters.

Boston picked Rutledge in the Rule 5 draft Thursday at the winter meetings, plucking him off the triple-A roster of the Colorado Rockies. The 27-year-old Rutledge spent his first three seasons in the majors with Colorado and played the last two years with Boston.

Orioles will pass on Bautista

Jose Bautista has long been booed whenever he’s played in Baltimore. Now, the free agent slugger wants the Orioles to consider signing him, and the team isn’t having any part of that. Bautista, who actually made his major league debut with the O’s in 2004, has tussled in recent years with Baltimore pitcher Darren O’Day and outfielder Adam Jones, among others.

Orioles Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette was asked about the 36-year-old Bautista on a Toronto radio station Tuesday night, and he said he wouldn’t sign the longtime Blue Jays star because Baltimore fans didn’t like him.

In a session with Baltimore reporters at the winter meetings, Duquette expanded on his remarks:

“Jose Bautista’s agent’s been knocking on the Orioles’ door for a while. I told him, ‘Look our fans don’t really like Jose Bautista,’ and they don’t. Not to mention he has a qualifying offer attached to him, and I just made a comment in that we weren’t going to be pursuing their client. It’s true, the guy’s a villain in Baltimore.”

Duquette was asked if Bautista could conceivably become more attractive if his price on the free agent market dropped. “I’ll have to ask our fans,” Duquette joked.

Etc.

Texas Rangers third base coach Tony Beasley has been declared cancer-free after missing much of the past season while going through extensive chemotherapy. Beasley, 50, was diagnosed with rectal cancer last January. The Rangers said in a tweet that Beasley has officially received a clean bill of health.