Someday soon, the Boston Red Sox will get around to shaking up their gridlocked outfield. For now, though, they keep adding to it, like squeezing another car onto a crowded highway, just in time for the holiday rush.

Pablo Sandoval is not an outfielder, he is a third baseman. But now that Sandoval is headed to the Red Sox as a free agent, for five years and about $100 million, pending a physical, he will bump another nearly official new Red Sox hitter, Hanley Ramirez, to the outfield.

Ramirez, who is getting $88 million for four years, also pending a physical, has never played the outfield across 13 professional seasons. But he told the Red Sox during negotiations that he would be comfortable moving to a new position. And the Red Sox seem to have unlimited space available in the outfield, even though the rules clearly state that only three can play there at one time.

Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rusney Castillo, Yoenis Cespedes, Allen Craig, Daniel Nava, Ramirez and Shane Victorino could all make a case to be starting outfielders in the majors. None can move to designated hitter in Boston because that spot belongs to David Ortiz.

For the Red Sox - aggressive spenders yet again - the deals for Sandoval and Ramirez, when completed, will open up an array of options and possibilities as they seek to rebuild their starting rotation and take another run at a championship.

It stands to reason that Ramirez will play left field - as another Ramirez, Manny, once did - and that Castillo, who signed a seven-year, $72.5 million contract last summer after defecting from Cuba, will also have a spot. Nava is a championship-level fourth outfielder, so he could stay, too.

That leaves Cespedes and Victorino, both with one year left on their contracts. Craig is owed $26.5 million through 2017 and is coming off a dreary season that only got worse after Boston acquired him from St. Louis. Bradley, 24, is an exceptional fielder but has struggled to hit, and Betts, 22, made a strong first impression last season.

Ben Cherington, Boston's general manager, must shift these pieces to the right spots, and he has a glaring opening to address. Last summer the Red Sox swiftly disassembled the rotation that helped them win the 2013 World Series, trading Jon Lester, John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Felix Doubront.

The team's prospective 2015 rotation includes Clay Buchholz, who had a 5.34 earned run average in 28 starts last season, and Joe Kelly, who had a 4.20 mark in 17 starts for the Cardinals and the Red Sox.

Beyond that are questions - several young pitchers offer promise - but with the Sandoval and Ramirez signings, the Red Sox have shown their hand.

The Red Sox are going for it, again. This is their intention every season, but they know a lost cause when they see one. They were willing to sacrifice the end of their 2012 and 2014 seasons to better prepare for the future. That paid off with the 2013 title, and now we will see how it works in 2015.

The Red Sox have pursued Lester in free agency, with several National League teams, including Atlanta, St. Louis and the Chicago Cubs, also showing some degree of interest. When they traded Lester to Oakland in July, the Red Sox got back Cespedes, who could help acquire a starter now.

They also got a better read on some young pitchers by using them so often down the stretch.

None of those pitchers - Rubby De La Rosa, Anthony Ranaudo, Allen Webster, Brandon Workman - performed especially well, but all could have appeal in trades, as could several younger arms. Half of Boston's top 12 prospects, as ranked by MLB.com, are pitchers under age 24 with no major league starts.

The Red Sox are well positioned to build a package of outfielders and pitchers that could entice the Philadelphia Phillies to deal Cole Hamels, their ace left-hander.

Hamels turns 31 next month and is owed $96 million for the next four years. The Red Sox presumably could work around Hamels' no-trade clause to Boston.

Such a move could take a while, but in any case, it is the kind of idea the Red Sox could at least explore with their surplus of outfielders and pitching prospects. For now, they know they will have Ramirez, whom they traded to the Miami Marlins exactly nine years ago Monday in a deal for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell.

Beckett and Lowell starred in the 2007 postseason to lead the Red Sox to a championship, while Ramirez established himself as an elite shortstop, most recently with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ramirez turns 31 next month, and his injury problems and defensive regression make left field more realistic now.

Then there is Sandoval, who caught the final out of the World Series last month for the San Francisco Giants. He was beloved in San Francisco as one of the Giants' many characters, playing the role of the overstuffed panda who feasts on pitchers in October.

At 28, Sandoval should still have prime years ahead, and the idea of someday shifting to DH is said to have appealed to him. The Red Sox must hope that he stays in reasonably good shape, of course, and that he and Ramirez avoid the path of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, two highly paid imports who quickly soured on the intensity of the Boston spotlight.