MUST READ from Speier. So many awesome and informative nuggets.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/12/05/price/9fixJHvzvF2OJVPLqd2TVP/story.html
Henry (who also owns the Globe) and Kennedy outlined the long-term financial resources available to the team — sufficient to field lineups with perennial World Series ambitions — while Henry spoke to his yearning to have Price anchor more title runs.
What the pitcher heard that evening made an impression.
“The moment that dinner was over,” said McKinnis, “David and I hopped in a car to go home. The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Well, that made me want to be a Red Sox.’ ”
Another rising young talent, Blake Swihart, was often viewed by teams with ace-caliber pitchers to trade as a secondary piece in a deal rather than a primary one.
Solving the pitching problem threatened to open up gaping holes on the major league roster, sacrificing a star to gain one.
Director of pitching analysis Brian Bannister examined the pitch mixes and deliveries of potentially available pitchers and compared them to pitchers who sustained dominance into their 30s in an effort to identify the available pitchers who represented the best age-defying bets.
■ Director of major league operations Zack Scott and the Sox’ analytics team led a study comparing the cost of trading for an ace (which required affixing a dollar figure to prospects and making performance projections) to signing one, delivering a memo to Dombrowski and Hazen toward the end of the World Series that Dombrowski then presented to the owners a couple of days later.
And a lot more... Well worth everyones time..
For anyone who doesn't pay for the Globe....
[
St. Louis] was the direction we were going in. They were being quite aggressive with us. They were anxious to move forward,” said McKinnis. “It had nothing to do with liking or disliking the Red Sox. It was more just the courtship by the Cardinals.”
On Tuesday, Casey Close, the representative for Greinke, informed the Sox that the righthander wanted to know if the Sox planned to make a formal offer.
Not yet.
Dombrowski demonstrated what one team official characterized as “tunnel vision,” wanting to see if he could bring Plan A to a successful resolution before pivoting if necessary to Plan B.
And so, on Tuesday morning the Red Sox upped their bid to $210 million. As McKinnis and Price discussed the offer, they saw a finish line.
“In my talks with David, we were like, ‘What are we waiting on?’ ” said McKinnis. “We love Dave Dombrowski. We want to be in the AL East. Let’s go.’”
The deal could be done, McKinnis said, for $217 million over seven years, the largest guarantee ever for a pitcher, surpassing Kershaw’s seven-year, $215 million deal.
Dombrowski received authorization from the owners to hit the mark. A few minutes before 5 p.m., the Red Sox president of baseball operations looped back to McKinnis and hung up. Deal done. And a new precedent set.
Werner dispatched his jet to Las Vegas to pick up Price on Thursday night, making the final arrangements through McKinnis.
“I spoke to Bo and said, ‘I’m going to handle some catering. What can I get David?’ David said, ‘I want two In-N-Out cheeseburgers with onions, fries, and a chocolate milkshake,’ ” Werner recalled.
“It cost me a lot of money to find somebody in Las Vegas to go to an In-N-Out and pick up two cheeseburgers. But I figured we’ve spent more than $200 million, what’s another $100 on a couple of cheeseburgers?”
