Time to earn your bucks.
Well, the GM meetings are here, the teams are all wheeling and dealing, and the Sox have already signed a pitcher. Of course, that pitcher is Tim Wakefield, on whom the Sox had earlier declined a $4 Million option to sign him for two more years at about $5 million guaranteed. So we’ve got another two years of Wake making either opposing batters or the Red Sox front office look like idiots, but there is other news to report, as in the actual comings and goings type of news.
The team has also picked up the option on Victor Martinez, and declined on Varitek and Gonzalez, both of whom may be back on smaller contracts (Tek has a player option for 2010 at $3 million, which he has three days to decide on). Also on the way out are Rocco (nice to know you but Hermida has better upside and his mitochondria are fine), Nick Green (it turns out you can’t win a World Series with Nick Green at shortstop) and Chris Woodward. That leaves Jed Lowrie as our only big league short stop and he can’t stay healthy any longer than a rookie big man for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Five more years. seriously. at least.
On the other front, the Sox have offered Jason Bay four years at $60 million, and gotten rejected, so they are either going to have to bump up the years, or pony up a few million more per. I think the best bet is to go with the years, as Bay is only 31 and has the type of body to age gracefully, and ponying up more money for less years just puts the team in a worse situation four years from now if he is still as good as he is today. Bay, along with Billy Wagner, have been declared type A free agents, so even if he does bolt, the Sox get a first rounder and a sandwich pick (between the first and second rounds in a “fake” round), and the same goes for Wagner, who seems to want to close. That is only if the club offers arbitration.
He'd look much better in Red White and Blue than he does in Piss Stain Yellow.
The real deals will be made on the trade market, not the free agent one (after Bay, Matt “I’m only good in the NL” Holliday, and John “I seriously don’t have the physical ability to close my mouth” Lackey, the three best free agents are old guys who spent last season in pinstripes). The big prizes are Roy Halladay, who has told the BJs that he won’t be back after his deal runs out, Adrian Gonzalez and Felix Hernandez. The latter two are both young, very very good, and locked up for at least a few more years, but trading them could net their present teams a much healthier minor league system. I’m sure the fact that Jed Hoyer has been running the Sox’ system for the past few years (before becoming the Padres’ GM) wont hurt the Sox chanses to make something work.
All in all it’s an exciting time, keep checking in for the most exciting news from Chicago since Oprah ate Tom Cruise’s head live on air (I hear she’s fat again).
98 Days.
Go Sox.
Done.
