A great deal of focus has been paid to left fielder Jason Bay’s ongoing effort to escape the dreadlocked shadow cast by Manny Ramirez out in left field.

But there’s a player that could be serving an even bigger role in finally banishing the Manny questions and doubts from the Boston forefront this season: Kevin Youkilis.

The bald, bearded first baseman hopped right into the cleanup spot once Ramirez was shipped out to “Mannywood”, and the offense didn’t skip even one beat with Youkilis at its very heart.

Youk is no longer the “feel good OBP underdog” of year’s past and is instead a legitimate middle-of-the-order MVP candidate counted on for .300, 30 homers and 100 RBIs this season and beyond. With that in mind, Youkilis didn’t do anything differently while training at API over the winter and simply wanted to maintain.

“I just tried to get stronger in the offseason and just get my swing down and start feeling good while getting in baseball shape,” said Youkilis, who will be playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.

The 29-year-old hit .319 with 11 home runs and 44 RBIs over the final two months of the season following “The Trade”, and clearly will be expected to continue raking with power in the middle of this season’s functional offense.

“Our offense was really good last year in the second half when we added Jason Bay to the lineup,” said Youkilis. “We have so many different guys that we can put in [the batting order], and we have so many guys that are going to mature and keep getting better. We have an unbelievable lineup from top to bottom, where a lot of other teams are going to look at us and go ‘Wow.”

 

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