I really have to wonder about the baseball acumen of the Red Sox front office this year. First we had Larry Lucchino low-balling Jon Lester. Then we had Steven Drew signed for $10 million for a patial season just when Xander Bogaerts was starting to hit. Who moves thier top prospect to another position to make room for a veteran who basically is an average player at his position? Now we hear the Red Sox are willing to trade Jon Lester, after backing themselves into a corner with Lester, but they won't trade 39-year-old Koji Uehara because they're hopeful of signing him for next year. Are they serious? This is thier one chance to get something meaningful for Uehara but they want to sign him for next year so they can have a great injury prone 40-year-old closer on a team that's likely to finish last? And of course, let's not forget the commitment to short term free agent contracts that virtually guarantees that no top level free agent, including Lester, ever sets foot in Fenway.
Building from within will get you some successful player development, but without at least 1 or 2 top level free agent players, it becomes difficult to win consistently. No top level free agent will care at all about the Red Sox self imposed budget restraint. A little restraint is good. But top level players must be overpaid when your team is 1 player away from a World Series quality team. This winter would be premature for that. But a Lester signing would show some level of commitment to quality by the Red Sox without which the team could start to become an afterthought in the minds of the fans. If the Red Sox ownership doesn't care about the team enough to present a quality product or keep popular quality home grown players like Jon Lester, why should the fans watch?
Building from within will get you some successful player development, but without at least 1 or 2 top level free agent players, it becomes difficult to win consistently. No top level free agent will care at all about the Red Sox self imposed budget restraint. A little restraint is good. But top level players must be overpaid when your team is 1 player away from a World Series quality team. This winter would be premature for that. But a Lester signing would show some level of commitment to quality by the Red Sox without which the team could start to become an afterthought in the minds of the fans. If the Red Sox ownership doesn't care about the team enough to present a quality product or keep popular quality home grown players like Jon Lester, why should the fans watch?
