Today Red Sox starting pitcher Ryan Dempster announced he will not be playing baseball this season. According to Tom Caron's twitter feed, Dempster said he's not ready to begin spring work. Said he has "too much respect" for game and teammates to "go out there and half ass it". With this announcement the Red Sox are now down to the typical 5 man starting rotation. They will also have an additional $13.25 million in payroll available. What will they do with it?
In the twittersphere many people are proposing that the Sox use this extra money to resign Stephen Drew. I am completely against that for multiple reasons. First of all it will block Xander Bogaerts from getting the opportunity to start which I think he has earned. Second of all it makes Scott Boras the biggest winner in this situation. If you've read my posts before you know I abhor Boras.
If the Red Sox do intend on using the new found cash right away, I think they should use it for guys who are already in a Sox uniform. They could use it to extend the contracts of David Ortiz or John Lester. Ortiz could get a little more this year in exchange for signing for a low ball price for next season. With it they could throw in some sort of automatic one year extension that kicks in at the end of each season based on numbers and starts. After this year's "pay-day" contract, the rest of his extension years could also have some bonuses thrown in so he gets paid if he produces as he ages.
When it comes to Lesters' extension they could just use some of the extra cash as part of a signing bonus so maybe take a little bit off his future yearly salary.
If the Red Sox do intend on using the new found cash right away, I think they should use it for guys who are already in a Sox uniform. They could use it to extend the contracts of David Ortiz or John Lester. Ortiz could get a little more this year in exchange for signing for a low ball price for next season. With it they could throw in some sort of automatic one year extension that kicks in at the end of each season based on numbers and starts. After this year's "pay-day" contract, the rest of his extension years could also have some bonuses thrown in so he gets paid if he produces as he ages.
When it comes to Lesters' extension they could just use some of the extra cash as part of a signing bonus so maybe take a little bit off his future yearly salary.
RSS Feed
