The Boston Red Sox made a huge statement this weekend. Of course, I missed it because I was a part of a wedding, but from the looks of it, Boston saved a lot of money by trading away Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford. Outside of John Lackey, the Red Sox really don’t have any long-term deals tying them down, especially once Dice-K is off the books. So one could expect them to make a push in free agency as soon as this winter, which is why there are MLB rumors surrounding Josh Hamilton and the BoSox.
Red Sox GM Ben Cherrington dropped a bit of knowledge for us when he was a guest on a WEEI radio show Monday morning:
“We have to look at anything. Yes, we’ve had several conversations, we have some ideas, guys that we think might be available, either through free agency — and those are the guys you know are going to be available — or in trades — guys you think might be available in trades. … Obviously this trade changes to some extent the types of opportunities we could pursue.
“The fact is we gave up a fair amount of offense in this deal and we have to find a way to replace that offense. We may need to try to do it over more than one position rather than just acquire one guy.”
To me, this is the equivalent of a gambling addict moving on to drugs. You just fixed your financial mess that your predecessor left you, so there’s no need to create another problem on your hands. And trust me, Hamilton will be a problem.
I am probably one of Hamilton’s biggest critics. Sure, he’s a fantastic hitter, but he’s injury-prone and relies too much on power and putting balls in play to be successful. It’s not like Hamilton is young–he turns 32 next season–so his bat speed and power will drop off as time goes on.
Personally, I wouldn’t give Hamilton more than four years, but I know someone will be stupid enough to give him a 7-year, $200 million contract. Some GM will have to pull a Magic Johnson to take on that contract in the future.
If the Red Sox were smart, they would lay low this winter. There’s no need to completely ruin what you just accomplished by forking over another albatross of a contract.
But hey, that’s just me. And these are just MLB rumors. We will find out where Hamilton goes this winter.
Bryan is a featured writer for Rant Sports. Although he concentrates mostly on the game of baseball, you can find him covering things all over the Rant Sports Network.
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