Speaking of injuries, I introduce the following from Nick Cafardo's baseball column. It addresses some of Matt's questions about the Sox' reluctance to go five years with Bay, and why they would sign JD Drew with his injury history.
The Red Sox have really protected themselves the past few years by either drawing the line on the number of years they’ll offer a free agent or trying to work in protections outside of the normal insurance they take out on player contracts. In *Pedro Martinez*’s case in 2004, the Sox relied on the evaluation of their medical staff and fell short of Martinez’s demand for more years. The Mets gave him the extra year he desired, and sure enough, Martinez broke down less than halfway through his four-year contract. The Mets, desperate for a righthanded bat, may make the same mistake with*Jason Bay *(above) by offering a fifth year. The Sox offered four, anticipating Bay’s shoulder history could result in lost time down the road. This was the major reason the Sox, according to *Peter Gammons *of MLB and NESN, were willing to offer *Matt Holliday *five years and $82.5 million, because there are no major preexisting physical issues. The Sox got protection in *J.D. Drew’s *contract on a preexisting right shoulder issue, enabling them to void the contract should Drew miss 35 days or more on the disabled list either last season or in 2010. His agent, *Scott Boras*, signed off on it. Apparently, Lackey’s agent, *Steve Hilliard*, gave the Sox protection in Lackey’s contract should he incur a major injury and miss significant time. Because of this, the Sox were willing to give Lackey a five-year deal after the Angels had come after him hard with a four-year proposal. According to Sox GM *Theo Epstein*, Beckett approved of Lackey’s deal, which begs the question of whether Beckett would also agree to give the team protection in a new contract if his shoulder issues were to resurface. The Sox aren’t afraid to let Beckett pitch through this coming season to see how he holds up before committing to him. Beckett is pitching for a contract, which is always a good thing for the team. It behooves Beckett to get back to top form, because then he’ll break the bank in Boston or elsewhere. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en.
