I do not understand.

I am hearing three things about the Red Sox this week, none official or confirmed, but reported in enough mainstream sources to make me have to consider them (something which, as we know, I tend to put off as long as possible during the Hot Stove Season).

The three things are:

1. The Red Sox are apparently going to pay the perenially injured J.D. Drew (.283/.393/.498 last season)--I will now attempt to type this without italics or incredulous exclamation points--$15 million per year over the next five years.

2. It is also rumored that Manny will be traded this week, probably to the West Coast.

3. Now that the pricey rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka face-time have been secured, the Red Sox and Matsuzaka are rumored to be "far apart" on a deal. Matsuzaka wants $15 million per year. The Red Sox want to pay him $9 million.

OK. I will attempt to keep from going all Dan Shaughnessy here, because who knows what will actually happen, and because having a heart attack by age 30 is really not a road I want to go down any further.

But. Um.

I'm no business whiz or expert in baseball negotiations, so bear with me while I try to get this straight. We're going to get rid of the injury-prone Trot Nixon for an equally if not more injury-prone right fielder with similar stats, but pay him twice as much...and we're going to blow eleventy gazillion dollars and fly our FO execs to Japan in the middle of the off-season to talk to the supposed Japanese Pedro Martinez, and then...offer him $9 million a year? Do I have this right? And apparently J.D. Drew is worth $75 million and being locked into a trade-killing 5-year blockbuster deal, but Manny's regular-like-clockwork 40/130 and protection for Papi in the lineup isn't worth another $20 million in 2007? Do I have this right? We're going to overpay for an outfield of J.D. Drew, Coco Crisp and Wily Mo Pena, while Matsuzaka awaits the Yankees' offers over in Seibu because we wouldn't pay him and Manny lights up ballparks all over California because we wouldn't pay him? And we're also still looking into Julio Lugo at short when we had a perfectly good Alex Gonzalez? And we don't have a closer and there are no prospects in sight? And...?

I mean, am I missing something here?

Someone pass me my pills.

Comments

[Offy]

The only deal that I heard regarding J.D. Drew, the Red Sox and $15 Million was for 2 years. That was before a bunch of other players signed for way too much though. So, the Sox not getting this done right away might end up costing them if the market drives his price up. For more than $15 and two years, the Sox are better off letting Trot walk and forgetting about Drew and seeing what they can get out of Crisp and Pena. That would of course mean that there's no way that they can trade Manny.

The only good thing if the Red Sox aren't able to sign Matsuzaka is that they'll get their $51 Million posting fee back. I doubt that it will get to that point though. The Sox aren't going after any of the other starting pitcher free agents out there so there's no way that they'll let Matsuzaka get away. The Yankees wouldn't be able to sign him if the Sox don't for another year when he becomes a free agent, but at that point he's available to everyone. The Yankees aren't as uncontested at being big spenders as they once used to be.

[David Welch]

The other possibility is that the Sox get an OF in return for Manny, say, Andruw Jones?m That would make the insane Drew signing a little more palatable. Another possibility? I bet Youkilis could play right of left for the Sox next season . . . Any 3B out there for Manny? Adrian Beltre?

[margalit]

I heard that J. (oh, I have a hangnail, I can't play) Drew has the same agent as Dice-K (lame name, huh?) and that in order to get Metsuzaka they have to sign Drew as well. Like a package deal. Which would suck royally?

[Paul SF]

Beth,

Calm down. J.D. Drew may be injury prone, but he's still les injury prone as Trot, and he puts numbers up consistently that Trot could only put up in one season. It's still a lot of money -- and more money than Damon would have cost -- for a guy who doesn't seem capable of playing two healthy seasons in a row. But when healthy Drew, unlike Trot, is one of the best RFs in baseball. So let's give him at least a little credit.

Likewise, I don't see Manny being traded unless it brings back major bullpen help and a major-league ready bigtime bat. Maybe that means getting prospects and spinning them for Jones or Wells or Linebrink or Adrian Gonzalez, but trading Manny and just leaving the hole there doesn't seem logical, and it's really not what I've been hearing from anyone.

And Matsuzaka will get done. See what I've written about that dumb Herald story about them being "oceans apart."

So there you go. Take your pills. Calm down, and wait for April. :-)

[marianne]

JD Drew is not $60 mil better than Trotter. I may be biased, but I feel this assessment is accurate.
Also,
Manny traded = Papi leads league in walks.

[San Francisco Red Sox Fan]

Beth-I couldn't agree with you more.