Look, if I have to experience it, why not pass it along?
Whether via trade or free agency, the Boston Red Sox have always struck me as a likely destination for Jose Reyes. Jed Lowrie is a nice player, but he isn’t in Reyes’ class (and is less than a year younger). Marco Scutaro is no one’ long-term solution. And the Sox already locked in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez long-term- Reyes gives them another star in the same age group to peak together, at an extremely hard-to-fill position.
But an item in this Jon Heyman piece really has me worried. It talks about “Boston people” saying that, in essence, the presence of Jose Iglesias will keep the Red Sox from going after Jose Reyes.
Really? This Jose Iglesias? With the .526 OPS at Triple-A after a .672 OPS at Double-A last year?
Don’t get me wrong, he’s considered a decent prospect- 52nd overall in Baseball America’s Top 100 this year- but he hardly seems ready for the big leagues. Far likelier, he’s several years from being a star- you know, around the time Crawford and Gonzalez are exiting their primes.
It’s precisely the opposite of properly leveraging those two long-term deals. And Theo Epstein is too smart not to know it. I’m concerned that a statement like that to Heyman wasn’t a denial, but a negotiating stance.
Now this is a lot to get from a statement to a reporter that asserts the opposite of what I fear. I know. But that’s my take, and why. Here’s hoping I am insane.
1 Comment
The Red Sox have never been a team to put more than 20% of their payroll into just two players, this year Beckett and Lackey make up just exactly that. Their top 8 payroll make up roughly 55% of their budget
Right now they are committed to $127MM already in 2012, with the need to resolve RF, DH with the assumption they let Papelbon walk and Bard take over as closer.
Ellsbury is Arb 2, and Saltalamacchia Arb 1 if they choose to retain him.
For a team that does not like to get too top heavy assuming they stay at roughly a $165MM (median of their last 2 seasons) budget, Gonzalez and Crawford account for 25% of that, the top four will make up 45%.
I don’t see them putting $18-$20MM a year on Reyes while they will need to address RF and DH next season, 3B the year after while focusing on filling the remainder of the roster.
They have only a couple of positions right now where they have decent options and cost control. Shortstop in one.