Spring is in the air, meaning baseball is on the horizon: the best sport there is and will ever be. Players are reporting to camp and rosters are all but set. Many teams have improved this offseason, including bottom-dwellers such as the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Boston Red Sox managed to have the best offseason of them all, signing speedy Carl Crawford out of the blue, bolstering their bullpen, and trading for Adrian Gonzalez, the power-hitting first baseman they have long coveted.
Gonzalez, whom they acquired for some of their best prospects, should destroy opposing pitching this upcoming season, especially at hitter-friendly Fenway Park. Barring injury, clubbing 40-plus homers and plating 100-plus runs is to be expected.
Still up in the air is whether he, who has a contract that expires following the season, will be signed long-term.
The 28-year-old is recovering from shoulder surgery he underwent in October. He was cleared to swing when team trainers determined he had “full range of motion, no tenderness and excellent strength”, according to NESN.
He isn’t expected to play in a spring training game until late March, but his health doesn’t seem to be of great concern.
What is really newsworthy surrounding him is his aforementioned contract situation.
There is nothing but good news on that front. He won’t take the disastrous approach Albert Pujols took with the St. Louis Cardinals, as he is confident an extension will be signed without setting a deadline.
He is three years younger than Pujols, who declined a contract offer from St. Louis believed to be worth $180-200 million over eight or nine years. Pujols is believed to want Alex Rodriguez money, meaning $275 million or more over 10 years.
What does this ridiculousness mean for Gonzalez? His asking price will be high, but Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said the team won’t let Gonzalez reach free agency.
“We’re not going to let him get away,” he said on WEEI’s The Dennis and Callahan Show. “We’re going to get him signed for sure.”
Even after signing Crawford for $142 million Boston has the money to do what Lucchino says they will.
Signing a player to such a long-term deal is always risky, but Gonzalez has everything quality a team could ask for in a power-hitter. He hits the majority of his homers to the opposite field, hits switch, gets on base 40 percent of the time, bats in the .280-.300 range, and plays a Gold Glove caliber first base.
Even still, money in baseball is worrisome. Among those concerned is Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams. He lashed out at the possibility of a team paying Pujols $30 million annually.
”For the game’s health as a whole, when we’re talking about $30 million players, I think it’s asinine,” Williams said, as reported by ESPN Chicago. “We have gotten to the point of no return. Something has to happen. And if it means the game being shut down for the sake of bringing sanity to it, to franchises that aren’t going to stop the insanity, I’m all for it.”
For perspective, the payrolls of the Pirates and San Diego Padres were $35 and $38 million last season.
Williams is right in saying baseball’s at “the point of no return.” I’m glad someone—especially a person with as much power over his club as Williams—brings attention to the ludicrous demands of players.
Here’s what it has come to: either poor teams have had to trade their franchise players, knowing they wouldn’t stand a chance in a bidding war during free agency, or they sign them to long-term lucrative contracts, thereby handcuffing their chances to sufficiently build around them.
And then there’s the case of Pujols, who says he wants to remain with St. Louis but is greedy beyond belief—balking at a $200 million deal because it’s not enough.
Gonzalez won’t make baseball—a game—more of a business than it already is, and soon enough he will receive what he’s evidently worth to stay with his ideal team.
Nonetheless, a significant dent will be made in Boston’s wallet, which is sadly inevitable in this day and age.
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