Red Sox Rumors: Sabathia, Youkilis, Tazawa

youkilis - 6 years - $50 million
lester - 5 years - $40 million

I think that would buy out 3 arbitration years for youk and maybe 4 of lesters. does that sound about right?

xwoojinx, Youkilis got arbitration last season: he's only got 2 years of arb left. And there's no such thing as 4 years of arbitration as you suggest with Lester: he has 2 years of service time, so he's got 1 year left at league minimum, then 3 years of arbitration.

Also, considering that Youkilis is going to be 30 this year I think it's very unlikely the Sox would offer him a 6-year deal. Pedroia is only 25 and they bought out his 1 remaining pre-arb year, all 3 arb years and 2-3 years of free agency. Buying out 4 years of Youkilis' free agency, including his age 34 and 35 years, doesn't sound like it matches the Sox philosophy.

"i could definately see the red sox front office going a tad longer on youk just because he seems to embody what the red sox are all about."

True... I think if Sox fans couldn't go to Fenway and chant "YOUK!!" there'd be riots. But still the Sox current management has let other well-loved players leave if they got too pricey. Hard to say.

so now that tazawa has signed, I'd like to know his true scouting report.. Is his fastball high 90's or low 90's? or I even heard that he couldnt hit 90 at the end of last yr..

"While I'd love to see Teixeira and a premiere young catcher come in this offseason, the top priority should be locking down the youth movement through their prime years."

The top priority should be improving the team. Not signing players you already control. I agree Boston SHOULD get them signed if possible, but filling holes on your roster should be the priority.

"A Pedroia like deal makes even less sense for Youk than it did for Pedroia."

To be entirely fair, the Pedroia deal made a whole lot of sense.

"The top priority should be improving the team. Not signing players you already control. I agree Boston SHOULD get them signed if possible, but filling holes on your roster should be the priority."

Look around at the subtle, under the radar things that Epstein has done this offseason. Should the team remain healthy-ish (By healthy-ish, I mean at least as healthy as last season, which was far less than healthy), we're in potentially even better shape right now. We can't do much worse at catcher and we've improved both our bullpen (By added Ramirez) and potentially our rotation (With Bowden and Buchholz one year closer and Masterson potentially available for the rotation). We need a backup outfielder and a backup left side infielder, neither of which is that staggeringly hard to come by. We've also shed a disgusting amount of payroll in Clement (I believe he just came off the books FINALLY after this season), Schilling, Renteria and Manny all coming off the books at once, with Varitek likely either gone or taking a paycut.

If we get desperate, we can probably nail down a Buchholz for Saltalamacchia deal, if necessary, leaving us still with one of the best rotations in baseball, one of the best lineups in baseball, one of the best defenses in baseball and one of the better relief corps in baseball.

Our team's already in the top tiers of the MLB. I feel making sure we stay that way in the future is more important of an idea to focus on than signing obscene contracts to further the already attractive distance between ourselves and most of the rest of the league. As I said, while signing Teixeira and a young, high ceiling catcher would give me chills, I'd just as soon spread the money internally to make sure we stay competitive for years.

Amusingly enough, I will add that it's nice to be about the only team in the MLB that's currently set up to do both in an efficient manner. Even if we (Ideally) manage to sign Tex and replace Varitek, we've still got such an abundantly large crop of cash in between where the team is currently spending and where the team is willing to spend (I think they've got close to $60 million in breathing room on the season, last I did the math) that we can probably afford to extend Youk, Papelbon and Bay with money to spare to do who the heck even knows with.

I think the team payroll is actually lower right now than it was a month ago, despite the fact two or three people have been added to the 40-man (Accounting for the offset of Crisp being gone with his salary).

"To be entirely fair, the Pedroia deal made a whole lot of sense."

Sure, he likes boston and wants to stay. Locking yourself in for 6 years at 7.5 per is not a good deal. It just isnt. I'm a Sox fan, love Dustin but he gave away a lot of cash. You can't expect an older Youk to leave that much cash on the table. 5/50 would be horrible for him.

Tazawa report: " Presently it's about average, but it has some plus potential. But reports that he has hit 97 mph on the radar gun have largely been rebuffed. His secondary stuff is very advanced for his age, and he relies on it heavily. He mixes in a plus slider, a nice mid-70s curve, and an above average forkball (basically a split-fingered change-up). He has excellent command, and likes to paint corners similar to Daisuke Matsuzaka, one of his idols. "

"Sure, he likes boston and wants to stay. Locking yourself in for 6 years at 7.5 per is not a good deal. It just isnt. I'm a Sox fan, love Dustin but he gave away a lot of cash. You can't expect an older Youk to leave that much cash on the table. 5/50 would be horrible for him."

I don't know about that. Youkilis is another one of those guys with a swing tailor made for Fenway. A lot of his power is to the left side and he grabs the monster a lot. He's a proven commodity, but not a $10 million+ a year proven commodity yet.

"Again, the priority for ANY team is to fix their immediate holes going into next season. Tex is a luxury, catching is not. The rotation has 5 pitchers in it, but is it set?"

Yeah, but the Sox don't have a large amount of immediate holes. Catching is the only significant immediate hole, which could probably be resolved by unloading Buchholz, should it become a drastic emergency.

That would give us a lineup of:

Youkilis
Pedroia
Ortiz
Drew
Lowell
Bay
Saltalamacchia/Teagarden
Lowrie
Ellsbury

With an obvious shuffle to the order.

Our bullpen is, at the least:

Papelbon, Okajima, Ramirez, Delcarmen, Littleton, Lopez

And our rotation is:

Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester, Wakefield

We will almost definitely get a catcher. Either Varitek accepts arbitration or we get one from Texas. Quite possibly both. I make mentioned of the potential for desperation on the Sox' end, but I honestly doubt it. The Rangers have three alleged teams courting their young catching primarily: The Sox, the Tigers and the Reds. Neither the Tigers nor the Reds can compete in terms of a package for Texas' need, that of a starting pitcher. Comes down to it, we'll probably have to drop Buchholz or Bowden for Saltalamacchia or Teagarden, whether we get Tek back or not.

That leaves Masterson on the fence of starting versus bullpen. Personally? I leave him in the bullpen and bring up Bowden when breaking camp to give him a shot as our number five guy.

The only holes that leaves are backup outfielder and backup infielder, two things rather easily rectified for cheap. Worst case on that is we end up with Bailey as backup for 1B/OF and Lugo as backup for 2B/SS.

Don't forget, this doesn't all have to happen in the offseason. If an emergency comes up, midseason trades and signings will happen. As it stands, though, I really do think the Sox' money is better spent locking up Youk, Papelbon and Bay, than going after free agents.

Again, though, I don't doubt it'll be both. I don't imagine anyone would be all that surprised if the Sox opened Fenway with Teixeira and Teagarden/Saltalamacchia on the team and Youk, Papelbon and Bay signed through their prime seasons.

I just can't seem to get my head around how Varitek would not accept arbitration. In arbitration he stands to make around $11 million for 1 year next season. I figure he is worth no more then $5-6 million per season for 2 years to another club considering his Type A status. Seems like a no-brainer to take 1 year at $11 mill v.s 2 years at $11-12 million.

Still the Sox have to wait on this decision before determining which path to go down.

(IMO) If Tek declines arbitration they step up their offer for Teargarden or Jeff Clement but if Tek accepts then they focus on Saltalamachhia.

Reason being, without Tek the Sox need someone who can step in to be a full time guy right away without being a defensive liability but with Tek they could afford to share the duties and bring a guy like Salty (who defensively isn't there) along more slowly.

With regards to extensions, I put Lester at the top of the priority list.

Youk is good, so is Bay/Beckett but a solid Left-handed pitcher is extremely valuable.

discussing an extension for Youkilis is probably not on the table until the Teixeira sweepstakes have been decided (if in fact the Sox are serious bidders).

Then if the Sox do win those sweepstakes, I think a Youk extension still isn't discussed until they find a trade partner for Lowell.

Its simple economics really; no team wants to lock up that much money into a logjam situation. They kind of have to move Lowell first to determine how much money of his contract they need to eat; then see how much they have left to offer to Youk.

I still think Youk signs an extension this offseason but I think the other cards need to fall first.

Also, its in Youks best interest to see what happens with Teixeira as well, if he signs a massive contract Youk's price tag can go up because the bar is set that much higher. I'm not comparing the two players ability wise but age/position wise Youk will be able to make a strong case for some big dollars; especially with the numbers he put up last year.