The Red Sox locked up a longtime catcher today and seem to be serious suitors for Jayson Werth. Here are the rest of the day's Red Sox rumors:
- The team will almost certainly tender Jonathan Papelbon a contract, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. The closer is likely to earn close to $11MM in 2011, but the Red Sox decided against putting him on the open market a year early.
- Adrian Beltre told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that his preference is to re-sign with the Red Sox. He's going to explore his options carefully, but could decide to accept an offer soon. The third baseman says "the number of years" on his next contract matters a great deal to him.
- The Giants, who officially announced their deal with Miguel Tejada tonight, are no longer targeting Marco Scutaro, accoding to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (on Twitter).
I seriously think, and I’m willing to bet a ton of money, that by 9:00 ET P.M. tomorow night, Beltre will be an A.
I’ve already seen elsewhere that the A’s are close to signing him so you aren’t gonna see me taking that bet.
I agree, 5/64 will be hard for him to pass up, and I don’t think the Sox will offer him that much.
Looks like the market for Scutaro is really starting to shrink
Sounds good to me.
Ellsbury
Pedroia
Crawford
Youkilis
Ortiz
Lowrie
Drew
Saltalamacchia
Scutaro
This could be next years lineup, if Beltre leaves and we really push for Crawford. Boston may not be too excited to move Scutaro yet, because they realize Lowrie may end up playing a lot of 3B. Now, if Beltre returns, or if we pull off the big trade for a 1B everyone keeps talking about, its a different story. But for now, I’m okay with Scutaro having a small market. He can still bring value to the team.
That line up scares me. We’d be in a world of hurt against LHP.
L
R
L
R
L
S
L
S
R
Four lefties…yeah that’s rough. But you know what, I’d rather have a lefthanded-heavy team than have to sign Werth over Crawford.
Sox could sign both Crawford and Beltre for a few million more total than someone like Adrian Gonzalez will want on his free agent deal. Plus they get to keep their prospects… this is what i hope the sox do..
I know that everyone is freaking out saying that Carl Crawford wants 7 or 8 years and Beltre wants 5 years 90 million. There’s no way either of those things come close to happening.
I think they could get them both signed for a combined total investment of under 160 million easy.
Beltre 4 years 62 million
Crawford 6 years 95 million
GET IT DONE THEO..
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Crawford LF
Youkilis 1B
Ortiz DH
Beltre 3B
Drew RF
Salty/Backup C
Scutaro SS
all told you get to switch your own first round pick for the number 18 pick you get a sandwich pick as well for VMART.
Everyone’s gonna kill me for saying that Crawford won’t break 100 million, but i just don’t see it happening. anything more than 6 years is insane for the guy as his speed is a very large part of his game.
When healthy the top three guys on this team could steal 150 bags easily and the next three could hit a combined 100 bombs and 350 RBIs. Everyone but Salty can have an OBP over .350 and will work the count very well…
tweak the pen a tad, hope for better luck with injuries (which is beyond anyone’s control) and pray for a rebound from Beckett and Lackey and you’ve done what you can do. It’s scary on paper
Do you have a plan B?
Crawford’s going to the Angels
I don’t think that’s a sure thing.
Texiera was going to be with the Sox if you listened to all the professionals
AGON would have already been traded to the Sox as well according to Rosenthal, Gammons, Kurkjian, Olney etc etc
I was stating what i think should happen not what will happen, and there are plenty of other options and tons of different scenarios. If you give me the other 29 teams to sign Crawford and you get the Angels i would take that bet and feel pretty good about it.
There is literally no chance Crawford receives less than 7 years and less than 16m a season. No chance.
150 stolen bases easily? I don’t know about easily. It would be a nice top 3.
Substitute Werth for Crawford and you have something a lot more likely to happen.
That may be, i was stating that i would rather have Crawford than Werth.
I think Werth is a good player but not a game changer like Crawford. All in all if it takes another year and 3 million more per to get Crawford you have to get it done.
“6 years is insane for the guy as his speed is a very large part of his game.” I feel that people seem to ignore that when they shouldn’t. Most of value depends on his speed and that’s usually the first tool to go especially when you spend your whole career playing on artificial turf. I dont see why he would get more than holliday.
I’ve never understood this either. Speed is the majority of his game and that’s going to go first…
The team who signs him needs to think about years 5,6, and/or 7…
Why don’t you tell that to Ricky Henderson who stole 66 at age 39 and 42 at age 42!!!!!
*cough* steroids *cough*
Too bad the Yankees don’t have many base stealers in their line-up
Are people really stuck on this? I think the Yankees have worse issues throwing out guys than the Red Sox do.
Yankees were 12th last year. That’s really not too bad.
Agreed…but the Yankees full time catcher for 2011 wasn’t on the team, so I’m not sure what 2010 has to do with 2011? All I’m saying is that of all the questions with Saltalamacchia, catching base stealers is literally the last one. The guy has a very good arm and one of the best pop times in baseball.
Gardner, Grandy and Jeter.
Doesn’t really mean much but in 2010.
Arod was 2/2 in SB vs Boston
Jeter was 3/3…..
Gardner was 9/10
Granderson was 2/2
I wouldn’t call that a testament to the Yankees’ base stealing prowess as opposed to a testament to the Sox’s complete inability to keep people from stealing last year. Vlad Guerrero was 2/4 in SB against us last year, literally half of his total for the year, both of them in one game.
Peter Abraham talked to Beltre…im surprised that tub of lard didnt try eat him
???? What?
heres an article that explains what whas wrong with salty
link to sports.espn.go.com
Beltre better get a lot of years if he goes to Oakland.. his numbers are going to plummet there.. See Matt Holliday..
As a diehard Sox fan I wont be heartbroken if the Sox dont overpay for a contract season from Beltre
You won’t be saying that when they sign Pena or Lee and switch Youk to first. Red Sox fans vastly underrate Beltre, just like they overrate every single power hitter.
not sure how hes undrerrated.. hes had 2 good years in his career. Ironically enough both were contract years.. Hes got 270 15 hrs 70 rbis written all over him next year IMO
Ironically enough his worst year also came in a contract year. But apparently 2 out of 3 is a trend.
true enough.. but Seattle is a terrible park for hitters… just like Oakland..
obviously I will hope for a repeat season if he re-signs, but I will be very surprised..
factor in he’s likely to cost at least 15 mil/year and I think it would be a poor signing
Oh this argument again, its just sooooo intelligent…How do you figure he’ll hit that when his career average is .275/.328/.462 with 25 homers and 90rbi? Besides his one injured season, which was a contract year, Beltre has hit 19+ homers 8 years in a row. The guy was a 25 home run hitter in Seattle. Why don’t Red Sox fans appreciate this guy? I swear the media brainwashes sox fans.
2004 greatly enhanced his career numbers, theres no arguing that.. the guy ha broken 90 rbis 3 times in his career.. 2 of those coming on contract seasons.. 90 rbis is not much for a “slugging CI”
What? First of all, are we really arguing RBI’s like they matter? If you combine his best season (2004) and his worst season (2009) they cancel each other out and add up to his career norms. The guy is a very, very good player. Your prediction could very well happen, but it’s based on no actual facts…I can say Youkilis will be terrible next year, but it wouldn’t be based on anything.
“I swear the media brainwashes sox fans.”Somebody here finally hit it on the head and posted it.This is what people here get and deserve when they read and take to heart more than 75% of the pure rubbish written by Mazz and especially so, Shaughnessy at the Globe. if Sox FO took their advice, Boston would have a 300M payroll and filled out with rubbish like jeter and every other 35YO+ useless player in the game.
Correct on Shaughnessy, what a trash buckett.
He’s most certainly correct on Mazz. Sometimes I think he’s actually worse than Shank, at least Shank was considered relevant once. Either way, they’re both muck raking idiots that the baseball world would be better off without having to deal with.
“..but Seattle is a terrible park for hitters…”
That’s also why he only had big seasons in LA and Boston. Two hitters parks. What makes you think he won’t continue hitting in the HITTERS park if he resigns with Boston? You’re a goof.
check his road vs home splits to see his true worth while in seattle he’s not as bad as some people think, then agian he’s not as good as he was last year either.
Beltre wants to stay in Boston…. and will… because he and his family made their decision to move East months ago….
Which completely contradicts every report out there that Oakland has made a serious and large offer and that Beltre’s wife and family prefer the West Coast.
We’ll see, but the way things seem to be unfolding, I am guessing that Beltre and Berkman sign in Oakland and the Angels sign Crawford. I wouldn’t discount the A’s. The weren’t half bad last season, they have a lot of talent and things seem to be moving in the right direction. They add those two players and you’ve got yourself a very competitive team.
Berkman is over the hill….. .248 last year….
Berkman was recovering from an injury last year. He was an absolute Beast in the playoffs.
Maybe….
I’m starting to think that Boston may be signing either Beltre or Crawford, but not both. And if they get Beltre, then they’re going for Werth. And if they get Crawford, they’re waiting til next year to try and sign Adrian Gonzalez, although a trade could happen as well. I get the feeling that while Epstein -is- going to spend this year, he’s not going to go free-agent crazy. Besides, there are too many other suitors for the bigger free agents this year for him to pull off too much excessive spending. Obviously, I think Epstein feels that Crawford is a better player than Werth. And he also would like to keep Beltre in Boston if he can, albeit on his terms. I think those two guys will be the catalysts; if Beltre signs with the A’s soon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Boston really ratchet up their wooing of Crawford.
Theo will outbid the Angels for Crawford because it’s either Crawford or Werth for our 3rd OF. We won’t risk taking on a contract that would be similar to Drew, and that’s exactly what Werth would do. He’s an overrated player, even Phil’s fans agree with that. He strikes out entirely too much, and that’s something that the Sox will not tolerate.
Look at the Red Sox healthy 2010 line up
Ellsbury – 74 K’s in 624 AB’s (09, last healthy season)
Pedroia – 45 K’s in 626 AB’s (09, last healthy season, 38 K’s in 302 AB’s last year)
V-Mart – 52 K’s in 493 AB’s
Youk – 125 K’s in 491 AB’s (09, last healthy season, 67 K’s in 362 AB’s last year)
Ortiz – 145 K’s in 518 AB’s (Red Sox are tired of how much he K’s, reluctant to pay him 12.5MM)
Beltre – 82 k’s in 589 AB’s
Drew – 105 K’s in 478 AB’s
Cam – 156 K’s in 544 AB’s (2009 season, last healthy season, 7.5mm AAV contract)
Scutaro – 71 K’s in 632 AB’s
Basically, the Sox are not going to give someone an extended contract worth 20mm if they strike out as much as Werth does. He K’d 147 times in 554 AB’s last year, 156 times in 571 AB’s in 2009, and 119 in just 418 AB’s in 2008. If we were going to be able to get Werth for 12-13mm/year, I think Theo would consider it, but he won’t take that line for $16-18mm that he’s looking for.
For the record, Crawford struck out 105 times in 600 AB’s in 2010, 95 times in 606 in 2009, and 60 times in 443 AB’s in 2008.
Strikeouts don’t mean too much to theo as oppose to OBP and Slugging%. Plus Werth also sees more pitches per plate appearance, another thing Theo values. Werth may strike out a lot but he takes pitchers deep in counts. Crawford saw 3.75 pitches per plate appearance in ’10 compared to Werth’s 4.37.
Is it possible for the Red sox to get Werth and Crawford and let Beltre walk and then trade Ellsbury and a few prospects or even include J.D. Drew bc I know the Padres were looking for an outfield bat (they tried to get Cody Ross) and get AGon in return and move youk to 3rd? So Crawford in LF Cameron/McDonald/young prospect in CF and Werth in RF? Or if we trade just young guys and they aren’t interested in Drew, Drew in RF Werth in LF and Crawford in CF w Youk at 3rd and Agon at 1st? I know the payroll would be huge, but maybe we could just afford it this yr and then let Drew and Matsuzaka walk which could potentially then give us enough to sign a 5th pitcher and have enough for that allstar offensive roster. I don’t know maybe I’m too much of a dreamer.
Ortiz, Drew, Cameron and Beltre would cost about $50-52M as a collective group.Gonzalez, Werth and Crawford would cost about $52-55.Sox would take a hard hit this year…but the team would be fantastic, hitting wise. There are still only two MLB ready pitchers in the bullpen. Sox realistically need 3 arms. I’d have no problem if the Sox nontendered Papelbon because they could have signed both Soriano and Rauch/Wheeler in the $11M range.
A pull happy hitter like Werth could do damage in Fenway.