We heard earlier today that the Red Sox have yet to make a formal contract offer to Jonathan Papelbon. Now let's round up another handful of offseason items out of Boston….
- Boston has yet to make a contract offer to David Ortiz but the sides are expected to speak soon, possibly tomorrow, a source familiar with the talks told Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald.
- The Red Sox will begin to interview managerial candidates early this week, starting with Pete Mackanin and Dale Sveum, according to WEEI's Rob Bradford.
- With Bud Selig looking more likely to intervene in discussions between the Red Sox and Cubs on Theo Epstein compensation, ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Insider link) predicts that the Sox won't get much for their former GM. Olney writes that the league has attempted to "tamp down the perceived value of executives," and that a huge return for Epstein wouldn't be consistent with those efforts.
- A source tells Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald that the Red Sox attempted to convince John Lackey to get Tommy John surgery as early as April, but the right-hander refused.
- In his weekly column for the Boston Globe, Nick Cafardo surveys executives and evaluators, asking whether a club might sign David Ortiz to play first base this winter. The answers ranged from "no way" to "he's athletic enough to be able to pull it off."
- From the team's perspective, there's no rush to try to lock up Jacoby Ellsbury to a long-term extension, argues Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal.
What a team player, that John Lackey
He shared his beer and fried chicken. Come on, give the guy a break
I’m not the biggest Lackey fan either, but I’m not about to throw him under a bus because a “source” said that. Hey Sox fans, let’s look past the disappointments in Lackey
…and Dice K and hope for a better 2012.
Wow that puts a whole new perspective on Lackey. Now i understand why he sucked so much this year. He was trying to tough it out for the year so he wouldn’t lose a year. Now if that was team driven or self driven i don’t know, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Considering he knew full-well that going in for Tommy John surgery would drastically affect his contract, I’m going to go with self driven.
“Considering he knew full-well that going in for Tommy John surgery would
drastically affect his contract, I’m going to go with self driven”
Sure does, not to mention he pitched it seems needing the surgery all season.
The endurance and effort by Lackey was sure in better taste than these same yo-yo’s repeating the same stale tasteless jokes.
Seems more team driven to me. If they thought he was hurt, they should have shut him down on their own, regardless of what he thought. He obviously wanted to keep pitching, but the team let him pitch hurt. Also, if it’s true that they wanted to shut him down in April, I’m very disappointed that they didn’t make another trade for a starter. They had more than enough time to do so.
Please stop. You’re ruining the narrative where other Red Sox fans can’t admit mistakes were made. Yes if they knew he was injured they should have been more proactive well before the trade deadline, but I give up trying to convey that so many mistakes were made and it seems, based on many fan comments, they just prefer to repeat many of them again. I’ll expect Obsessions response to this shortly claiming that have no idea what I’m saying and he has it all figured out. Understandably with all those post season wins in the three years he has a lot to go on.
It’s probably a bit of both. I don’t see Lackey as the kind of guy who would give up the ball and sit on the bench. He wants to be out there and compete on days he isn’t drinking beer and eating some fried chicken.
But I’m sure the contract played a huge part in it too. I think it’s a situation where it was both.
I really want to know who said that Ortiz is “athletic enough to be able to pull it off.”
Manny?
it said “executives and evaluators” … I’m guessing his agent made the statement when he was evaluating his upcoming contract.
I’m assuming they meant he’d be god awful but not much worse than Ryan Howard or Adam Dunn.
His agent.
Must be someone on some kind of mind altering drug
I don’t know how much it’d affect negotiations, but I don’t think extending him after an MVP-caliber season is a good idea. I’d much rather wait a year then try.
David Ortiz is athletic enough to do something?
He’s definitely athletic enough to hit a baseball, beyond that I’m not so sure.
He’s athletic enough to drive his bentley to his local gnc walk in and get some pro-bol. Or ana-test. It’s not a steroid if it’s sold at gnc right!…
Buster Olney is a circus clown. Tamp this.
yeah, lackey…..instead of losing 1 yr he loses 2. this yr was a loss and next yr too. for the redsox (and me; being a fan) i hope he turns it around. but, i’m also not so keen on him being a red sox.
Lackey doesn’t “lose” anything, he is still paid the same through 2014. The only thing that changed is the Red Sox now have a team option for 2015 at the league minimum.
An extra year of Lackey? Excellent!!!
Not an option… it already triggered.
I find it hard to believe that the Sox would keep rolling Lackey out there every 5th day knowing full well that he was unlikely to get any better (knowing that he had an arm problem that required surgery)!
People like to forget that Ortiz played 70 games at first base in 1998, 11 years ago, I mean he can do it.
…
out of all the chunky guys in baseball, I do wonder why Ortiz gets so much attention. He’s not athletic, sure, but it’s not like Miguel Cabrera and Paul Konerko are blazing around the basepaths either, and they both get to play first. I don’t think Ortiz should play first, no, but it just seems odd to me.
He plays for the Boston Red Sox. There’s gonna be more media scrutiny solely for that reason.
He actually has pretty good hands, but no range and would probably break down over the course of a full season in the field.
On the Ortiz funny sources at 1B part in Cafardo article…
Does anyone else remember George Scott’s last couple of years in Boston? Ortiz reminds me a great deal of him were he to attempt to play 1B.. The Boomer got to where he could barely move at all around the 1B bag and he was a previous slick fielding GG guy earlier in his career, not a horrible, below average range wise guy like Ortiz who was sent to DH because they couldn’t play any adequate position.
I saw George a few years back when he managed Pittsfield in the Indy league. Took about 5 minutes to walk to the mound. Must have weighed 300 pounds with bum legs.
Time to move on with Ortiz since the DH position is starting to morph out of that DH and DH only slot. A guy like Young is great at DH since he is a wee bit versatile and can spot up other positions. Youk could fill a similar role. A little third, first and DH.
I wonder if the Red Sox would try to void Lackey’s contract with him refusing to get surgery and now needing it 6 months later
I highly doubt you can void a player’s contract for opting not to get surgery, or force him to do so. The moral implications of losing control over your body so you can play baseball would simply be too staggering. I suspect the only choice you have in the matter is whether or not you place him on the disabled list.
Which, by the way, the Red Sox didn’t. I think that is some fairly strong evidence that the decision is not as simple as a lot of posters are making it out to be. If they believed so strongly that surgery was the only option, they would never have been letting him pitch with that injury, nor do I think he COULD have pitched all year; we’ve all seen pitchers throw a pitch and need Tommy John and none them are going “nah I’m fine skip, I can pitch another season.” More likely, it’s one of those in-between cases where surgery can definitely fix it but might not be strictly necessary. Whether it got worse as he continued to use the arm and there is now no choice or he simply realized it wasn’t working out I won’t speculate.
Next closer Joe Nathan for half the price.
Ortiz should never play 1B again.
Crawford should not and will not be traded especially for Jason Bay. Bay was great while he was here but his numbers have been terrible in NY. Let’s see what Crawford can do in year 2.
All the fried chicken and beer posts need to stop. They are tired.
At first I thought that the Red Sox needed to trade Lackey even if it was for another bad contract but that is not going to happen now. We can only hope he comes back stronger and better after surgery as many pitchers have. There is no chance in hell that the MLBPA will allow Lackey’s contract to be voided.
Why would any team want Zambrano? That guy has a bad contract and is a cancer.I am a little concerned that the Cherington is interviewing Sveum since he was a terrible 3rd base coach but I am sure they have their reasons.I’d like to see a guy like Rick “Rooster” Burleson get an interview. I am a big fan of his and he was a fan favorite while he played for the Sox back in the day. I looked him up and he has big league coaching experience with the A’s, Red Sox and Angels and minor league managing experience at every level from Rookie ball to AAA. Not to mention that he has won at every level as well.
That’s all I got.