Red Sox are Cheaters!
There’s a piece in today’s New York Times that should shed some light on whether or not the Red Sox are evil.
They are.
According to the Times, GMs from several teams are accusing the Red Sox of breaking the rules when it comes to signing free agents:
Exhibit A for the disgruntled is Boston’s signing of J. D. Drew, who walked away from the final three years of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a move that his agent, Scott Boras, said was aboveboard and precipitated by the marketplace. The signing of Drew could lead to an investigation by the commissioner’s office into possible tampering by the Red Sox; one baseball official said the commissioner’s office would vigorously investigate the matter if it received a complaint, but added that no complaint has been forthcoming.
Did the Sox tamper with J.D. Drew? Almost certainly. It is really, really hard to believe that the oft-injured Drew chose to opt out of three years and $33 million without some assurance that he would get more elsewhere. Plus, Drew seemed happy in LA.
Six days before the end of the season, Drew told Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register that he was happy in Los Angeles and had not thought about the opt-out clause. He said he did not plan to use it.
“At some point,” he remarked, “you make those commitments and you stick to them.”
Ha! J.D. Drew is all about making commitments. He has been committed, since the day he was drafted, to making as much money as possible, win or lose. I hate that guy.
But the complaints don’t end with Drew. Don’t forget about Matsuzaki, who the Sox haven’t even signed yet:
Club executives and baseball officials are also watching the Red Sox negotiations with Boras for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitcher, for whom Boston bid $51.1 million just for the right to talk to him.
They have observed as Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox chief executive, recently went to Japan to meet with Matsuzaka’s team, the Seibu Lions, for the stated purpose of establishing a working agreement between the teams. They have read with interest Boras’s view that there is no rule barring the Lions from sharing part of the posting fee with the player, thus making it easier for the Red Sox to sign him for less of their own money.
Now, I’m not one to speculate. But a more cynical person might be inclined to think that Boras and the Sox have an under the table agreement and that Boras told the Sox that he could hook them up with Matsuzaka, but he’d be more inclined to do so if they stepped up and overpaid J.D. Drew. And since the Sox had been interested in Drew for a while anyway, and since the team needed a new right fielder, it all made sense. If one were really cynical, one might even think that Boras promised the Sox that if they bid a ridiculous amount for Matsuzaka, that the Seibu Lions would turn around and share some of that money with Matsuzaka, thereby reducing the need for the Sox to sign the star Japanese pitcher to a huge, expensive contract.
Of course, I don’t think that’s what happened, because I’m not a cynical person. But plenty of people around baseball are not so sure.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
The evil empire has elicited some nasty counter-tactics from a formerly non-evil competitor. The small market teams should be pitching a fit.
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December 8th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
There is only ONE EVIL EMPIRE and it is not the Sox. Could it be that Green with envy is a color that the Yankees and others are wearing because someone stepped up and put their money on the line.
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December 8th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
You know, I meant to mention, in my post, that it’s possible that some of the smaller market teams are just jealous of the Sox, but I started talking about J.D. Drew and how much I hate him and I got sidetracked.
So, yeah, maybe other teams are just jealous of the Sox’s resources and are lashing out. Sound familiar Boston?
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December 8th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Coley, I think you might be taking your newfound hatred of the Red Sox a bit too far in this latest post.
The NY Times is a notoriously pro-Yankees rag, and even in the quotes you selectively pulled from the article, I see no hard evidence anywhere that the Sox tampered. This is just the New York Times idly speculating and casting aspersions on the Sox’s dealings couched in vague language.
Even in the Times’ own words, there only “could” be an investigation, and so far, “no complaint has been forthcoming.”
This is non-news based on nothing at all (except anti-Red Sox sentiment), yet you happily proceed to add it to the list of evidence that the Sox are evil.
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December 8th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Nick, this is a blog. If we’re not going to over-react to rumors and speculation, what good are we?
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December 9th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Coley is allowing his hatred of everything having to do with Boston (except me and his beautiful Masshole girlfriend, of course) cloud his judgment.
J.D. Drew had an out clause in his contract. It was a very unusual clause. He chose to exercise it. And just a few weeks ago, all the talk on this blog was about how he was a clubhouse cancer the city of LA couldn’t wait to get rid of. I don’t see how that leads anyone to a conclusion of “tampering.” It’s a players’ market this year—sure, a few days before the end of the season, JD might have thought he couldn’t get any more than $11 million a year. But by November, when he chose to leave, the playing field had shifted.
Furthermore, as to speculating about Boras possibly blurring the needs of one client with those of another…..Scott Boras is everyone’s agent. If one is going to start pulling conspiracy theories out of thin air, where does one stop? Here’s an interesting bit of the article that my esteemed colleague did not include:
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Boras said Drew walked away from the contract because he had told him what the market was for a player of his caliber.
“I did my due diligence,” Boras said in a telephone interview. “There were a number of teams that need a 3, 4 or 5 hitter, and J. D. was the only center fielder. I went to the Dodgers a week before the opt-out date and had lunch with Colletti. I had not yet met with J. D. I said if you want to talk about it, we are prepared to talk because J. D. has enjoyed his time in L. A.”
The Dodgers, though, were not prepared to extend the current deal, so Drew decided to become a free agent, Boras said.
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Once again, J.D. decided to gamble for more money. Is it so hard to believe? He’s done it before.
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