"Showcasing the opinions of Die-Hard Red Sox Fans"

Home
Regular Columnists
Column Archive
Your Turn
Red Sox Lock Up First Piece Of The Puzzle

Well it has been well documented by virtually every media outlet available to our little minds that the Red Sox have quite the eventual free agent crisis on their hands. On Friday they took the first step in preventing the dismantling the core of the 2004 team by signing 1B/DH David Ortiz to a 2-year contract extension with a club option for a third year. According to all the rumors I've heard the deal is giving the slugger roughly 6.5 million for each year through the 2007 season.

Let me start by telling you that even though this was not surprising that this deal happened what is surprising is the timign of the deal. Rather than wait until the end of the season which the Sox owners said they were going to do with the whole Pedro contract fiasco recently. I can recall Theo Epstein saying how the Red Sox wanted to keep the burden of contract negociations off the players during the season and focus on winning ball games. And here they go signing one of the many upcoming free agents in May! Don't get me wrong I think this deal is great. As Theo put it, they've got Ortiz in his prime for the next 3 or 4 years which is the length of the contract and not to mention at a miniscule price. Ortiz on the free agent market would have fetched a much higher price than 6.5 even with the market the way it is.

Bravo Theo and company! I see this deal as a great one in many fassets. You take care of one upcoming free agent in May easing the possible blow this team may face at the end of the season when guys like Varitek, Lowe, Pedro, and Nomar join the free agent market. Granted this is just a small part of what they are facing this offseason but I find it refreshing that they are willing to make a commitment into keeping the core of this team together.

Red Sox fans, could you imagine a Sox team without several of these players. I know I can't. Teams like Boston can't afford to be "rebuilding" as some GM's put it. The fans would'nt have it. A losing team in Boston, no way. It's a huge relief on the Theo to have at least one of the many core players of this team back for a couple more years. The only problem that could result from this is a little bit of hypocritisism that may result. Theo said he did'nt want to bother the players during the season...he lied but if your going to lie to the players get something out of it like the Sox did on Friday, a proven slugger and a guy that is probably still developing and will have the chance to.