Red Sox sign Stephen Drew

[Guest]

Shortstop Stephen Drew has agreed to a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

The deal calls for a $9.5 million salary and $500,000 in performance bonuses, the sources said.

Drew, 29, is the younger brother of former Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew.

Drew became a free agent when the Oakland Athletics declined their half of a $10 million mutual option for Drew in October. Drew received a $1.35 million buyout.

Drew, acquired by Oakland in an August trade with Arizona, batted .250 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 39 regular-season games for the A's.

Drew returned last season after missing 137 games dating to July 20, 2011, when he fractured his right ankle sliding into home against Milwaukee. He played in 40 games with the Diamondbacks last season and was hitting just .193 before the trade.

Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington has maintained throughout the offseason that shortstop isn't at the top of his to-do list, but also said the job will not just be handed to all-glove, no-bat prospect Jose Iglesias.

The 22-year-old Iglesias hit just .118 in 68 at-bats for the Red Sox in 2012. He was expected to be given an opportunity to earn the starting shortstop job in spring training. It is unclear if that's still the case, however, with the addition of Drew.

"We're just trying to be opportunistic on that," Cherington has said. "We feel Jose is ready to compete for the job. We're not ready to give it to him."

Recently, Iglesias was in Arizona training with Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/...e-deal-sources

$9 million for .229/.308/.348 is a really smart investment for any team:cmpunk:

[NAHSTE]

I know he's just a placeholder for Boegarts and/or Iglesias (who I don't think can hit enough to play everyday in the majors but we'll see), but this is kind of an expensive placeholder. Not to mention, a shitty one.

[FedEx227]

Is this for a TV show or something? C'mon. They can't be serious with this offseason.

[Woy]

Wanted him in St. Louis, but definitely not at this price. Awful deal.

[FedEx227]

Then again, it's one year so it really doesn't matter. Still silly but money isn't an issue to them.

[Goober]

How much is Jed Lowrie making in Houston this year? Less then 10 million.

Ben Cherington sucks.

[Rudi]

[Loco]

How much is Jed Lowrie making in Houston this year? Less then 10 million.

Ben Cherington sucks.

In 5 seasons Lowrie has made 2.4 million. Doubtful he would have made more than that for this upcoming season, the Red Sox are a fucking joke.

Also lets not forget they gave away Marco Scutaro as well who was big contributor of a World Series team last season and this upcoming season got 3 years for 20 mill aka 6.6 per.

[Lanteri]

Before I address the Drew signing let me just talk about some of the nonsense I've seen in this thread so far:

It's hilarious how overrated Jed Lowrie is by pretty much anyone that posts on VSN. The guy's frankly not that good. And the 97 games he managed to play this year? His career high. Dude's one of the most fragile players in the league and he's totally average when he's healthy, with an occasional month of brilliance mixed in. Nothing to be up in arms over. I get that the trade sucks, but come on. Let's stay in perspective here.

Also, Scutaro was totally a common sense move at the time. Let's not go with revisionist history here. There were a lot of concerns about Scutaro's shoulder and whether he could play shortstop anymore because of it. And, in fact, he hasn't. He played a handful of games there this year, but was primarily a second baseman, and has been extended by the Giants...to play second base, which of course wouldn't be an option for him in Boston. Again, don't get caught up on an amazing run that no one could have ever seen coming. They were never going to get anything of value of Scutaro in a trade.

As for Drew: I'm not really sure why the value got up that high, but I don't hate the signing. For a lot of teams 9.5m is a lot of money, but for the Sox it's whatever. It's too much obviously, but since it's a one year deal I don't think too much of it. He's an ideal stop gap. He too has had a number of injury problems in recent years, but if the Sox can get anything similar to the 2008-2010 form of Drew then it's worth the money. I won't hold my breath though.

[PP]

One year is an investment? Either way Inglesias is getting packaged with Ellsbury.

[NAHSTE]

One year is an investment? Either way Inglesias is getting packaged with Ellsbury.

That's like putting a turd in the same box as an iPad and giving it to someone for Christmas.

[Warner2BruceTD]

$9.5M is a lot of money for Drew, I had to look at my phone about 3 times when ESPN sent the text, but it's one year, it's a team that can afford it, and they were running out of viable options at this point.

[Goober]

Before I address the Drew signing let me just talk about some of the nonsense I've seen in this thread so far:

It's hilarious how overrated Jed Lowrie is by pretty much anyone that posts on VSN. The guy's frankly not that good. And the 97 games he managed to play this year? His career high. Dude's one of the most fragile players in the league and he's totally average when he's healthy, with an occasional month of brilliance mixed in. Nothing to be up in arms over. I get that the trade sucks, but come on. Let's stay in perspective here.

Also, Scutaro was totally a common sense move at the time. Let's not go with revisionist history here. There were a lot of concerns about Scutaro's shoulder and whether he could play shortstop anymore because of it. And, in fact, he hasn't. He played a handful of games there this year, but was primarily a second baseman, and has been extended by the Giants...to play second base, which of course wouldn't be an option for him in Boston. Again, don't get caught up on an amazing run that no one could have ever seen coming. They were never going to get anything of value of Scutaro in a trade.

As for Drew: I'm not really sure why the value got up that high, but I don't hate the signing. For a lot of teams 9.5m is a lot of money, but for the Sox it's whatever. It's too much obviously, but since it's a one year deal I don't think too much of it. He's an ideal stop gap. He too has had a number of injury problems in recent years, but if the Sox can get anything similar to the 2008-2010 form of Drew then it's worth the money. I won't hold my breath though.

Scutaro played 2B because he was blocked at SS by Tulo, and then Crawford. Similar to how he was blocked by Pedroia in Boston. But really that's all irrelevant. You don't trade two players who play at the hardest to replace position, for relief pitching, the most easily replaceable part of a baseball team. Terrible trades, then and now.

[NAHSTE]

Carlos Pena meanwhile signs for 2 million. Is Drew really worth almost 80% more than Pena?