December 19th, 2006 → 10:43 am @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
For the first time in a good long time, there’s a simmering issue involving the Red Sox that isn’t receiving the kind of national attention usually reserved for missile treaties: J.D. Drew’s still unsigned contract. The Red Sox, according to reports that still haven’t been confirmed (at least on the record), by the Sox, Drew, or Scott Boras, are worried about the results of a physical. (Specifically, they’re worried about Drew’s gimpy shoulder.) (Drew’s public comments on the issue — that the shoulder has, as recently as last year, hurt his power production — don’t seem to help any kind of union claim he might make should the deal actually fall apart.)
The road bumps here are receiving the kind of temperate discussion you might expect in, say, St. Louis. After all the speculation that the Sox gave Drew that supposedly above-market contract in order to smooth their way to signing Matsuzaka, there haven’t been any (or at least very few) conspiracy theorists claiming the Sox are convientently backing out of the deal now that they have Daisuke in the fold. There also hasn’t been any growing chorus of concern; after all, if Drew somehow doesn’t end up in Boston, the options in right involve either everyday use of the far-from polished Wily Mo or making an effort to sign the power-deficient Trot Nixon to a one-year deal.
Anyway. This’ll all probably be worked out in the next few days. In the meantime, if you haven’t read Gordon Edes’s piece on the Matsuzaka negotiations (which I alluded to in a throwaway line in yesterday’s Chass rant), check it out. Also worth perusing is the always excellent Rob Bradford’s piece in the (still criminally inept) Eagle Tribune.
Post Categories: 2006 Hot Stove Season & Daisuke Matsuzaka & Gordon Edes & J.D. Drew & Rob Bradford
drleather2001
17 years ago
Ugh. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune. What a rag. Can’t wait to go home for X-mas and read up on Christmas decorations in North Andover for 3 days. Does it still have “Eggers” in the “Funday Sunnies” section?
branatical
17 years ago
Not sure if this is a case in point, but the link to Rob Bradford’s piece doesn’t work. (Should be fixed now…)
I’m surprised Murray Chass hasn’t come out to say that: now even the Red Sox are so frightened of potential tampering charges, they choose to stoop to new lows to back out of the JD Drew deal.
It will be interesting to see how this Drew situation gets resolved. If the deal doesn’t get done, conspiracies will certainly fly…Given his potential for physical breakdown, supposed soft make up and outlandish contract, I personally wouldn’t be all that upset. I don’t want 14 million spending half the time on the DL.
tinisoli
17 years ago
The St. Louis-ian calm about this Drew issue may reflect that people are busy with holiday preparations and also that we’re all a bit burned out by last week’s mania. I know I need a breather. But it also seems clear that few fans would be upset if Drew’s shoulder issue compelled the Sox to back out of this deal. The publicity about Drew’s medical history makes this less than shocking. I imagine a lot of people expected something to turn up in the physical. Maybe the Sox did, too, and this is just another adaptation in their evolving M.O.: Offer big money, make it seem like a deal is done, but then use the physical’s results to force a player (or a team) to make some concessions at the last minute.
I don’t buy into the theory that the Sox offered a contract to Drew as a way to get Boras in a good mood. The guy is a very rich, powerful, successful agent, not some barfly who’ll go home with you if you buy a few drinks. And if his clients suspected that he was pliable, they’d probably fire him. He’s got to fight for each guy as if he’s the only client he’s got.
Ogie Oglethorpe
17 years ago
If they have health questions about Drew reduce the guaranteed portion of the deal replace it with performance incentives. Either that or simply back out. No need to plow forward if you are uncomfortable.
benschon
17 years ago
All this crowing about how Theo outplayed Boras is a little absurd. Boras’ job is to extract maximum dollars for his client. Considering that he pushed the Sox to their pre-determined maximum spending limit, to the point where they were ready to let the deal collapse, I would say he squeezed out every last dollar. His 5 percent commission on this deal is $2.6 million vs. nothing if the Sox had walked away.
What’s more, these negotiations drew so much attention to the posting fee system and its problems, the system will probably get reformed anyway. Orza and Selig are already on the record that something should be done. This was his other big priority, which will now happen even though he did not have to do the “nuclear option” of sending Matsuzaka back to the Seibu Lions. In summary, he gets maximum dollars for his client (not as much as Boras’ ask, but in how many negotiations does that ever happen?), a huge commission, and the strong likelihood of a reformed system that will earn him even more money in the future. And people are reporting that “lost” this negotiation? Please.
benschon
17 years ago
The Sox are in the catbird seat on the Drew contract. They have Matsuzaka signed, and now they have a legitimate reason to re-negotiate the terms of a contract that a whole lot of people think was too much money for too many years.
This reminds me of making a house sale contingent on an inspection. You can always find something in the inspection report that allows you to return to the seller and say, “I know we agreed on a price, but I didn’t realize that the furnace needed to be replaced in a few year. How about we knock 5 grand off the price?” If there are lots of other buyers at the higher price, the seller will tell you to take a hike. But if you overpaid, it’s a way to recoup some of the money from your initial mistake.
unforgiven
17 years ago
Rob Bradford wrote, “Also, the posting price was tax-free, which amounted to another 40 percent or so saved from the $103 million, almost negating the $51-plus million.”
I wouldn’t call that reporting “excellent,” Mr. Mnookin. That’s just sloppy, if not outright stupid. The tax is not coming “from” the $103m. It’s not money recouped, it’s money that was never spent, and doesn’t in any way negate the posting fee, as Bradford claims. He’s gushing.
You’re being silly. It doesn’t negate the $51.1, obviously, but that’s a minor slip up that could have been the result of anything — a weird insertion in copyediting, a sentence that was cut in half, etc…and any reader should be able to figure out what’s meant, as opposed to, say, reporting information that doesn’t have any basis in reality. If you’re going to get offended over things like that, you’re going to be pissed a whole lot of the time.
— Seth
tmurph13
17 years ago
I think Boras was a bit outplayed by Theo, but emphasis on a bit. I agree that the crowing has been overblown, but I also have no criticism of the Sox front office work in regards to Matsuzaka. I bet that Boras’ target was for something shorter than 5 years and more than $10.4 per year. I think he mistepped on the fort knox quote and I think the Sox, to their credit, were in position to read that misstep and how it was playing back in Japan. That probably helped firm up the belief in the leverage they had and let them go back with a reasonable upward adjustment that was still good value to them. In the end, Boras still got a good result for his client given the context, but he also could have gotten a better result if the Soc had slipped up.
It will be interesting to see how the posting system changes. It looks to be a crude version of the transfer system used worldwide in soccer. What’s interesting is that in that system the agents get paid from the transfer amount and not from the players salary and often the player himself gets a cut.