Lame Sports

The Red Sox: New Public Enemy #1?

By Rob Dauster

Is it just me, or has this year’s installment of the baseball winter meetings been filled with more drama than usual? From trade rumors involving big name stars like Florida’s Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, Pittsburgh’s Jason Bay, Oakland’s Dan Haren, and Baltimore’s Miguel Tejada and Erik Bedard to the always exciting “see-who-the-most-overpaid-free-agent-is” waiting game (this year it is center fielders, with Torii Hunter setting the standard at 5 years, $90 million, but Andruw Jones and Aaron Rowand seem poised to give that mark a run for its money), it’s no wonder this time of year in baseball is known as the “Hot Stove”.

The headlining act this off-season has been the Johan Santana sweepstakes. Twins GM Bill Smith has played out these negotiations just about flawlessly, although given the circumstances, even Homer Simpson couldn’t mess this up. Smith has the best lefty starter in baseball in a contract year, and the two richest, spend-a-holic teams lusting after him – the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. He has even been able to get both teams to put previously untouchable prospects into trade packages (New York’s Philip Hughes and Melky Cabrera, Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury and Jon Lester). With Yankee’s owner Hank Steinbrenner’s self-imposed Monday night deadline come and gone, the Red Sox are now the front-runners to get Santana. Their offer reportedly includes minor leaguers Jed Lowrie and Justin Masterson, and either Ellsbury or the combination of Lester and Coco Crisp.

Let’s say for argument’s sake that the Red Sox do acquire Santana. Boston already is the best team in baseball after resigning Mike Lowell and Mike Timlin, and the addition of Santana would give the 2008 version the chance to become one of the best ever. The Red Sox, if they are smart, won’t make this trade unless they can come to terms on an extension for Santana, which reports say should reach the six-year, $150 million range. This added salary will push the Red Sox total payroll from $143 million to upwards of $170 million. For reference, the Yankees paid their players $196 million this year, and the third highest payroll in 2007 was the New York Mets at $116 million.

So wouldn’t this mean the Sox have passed the Yanks and are now public enemy #1 in Major League Baseball? Maybe I feel this way because I am a disgruntled Yankees fan, but hear me out. The Yankees developed the moniker “ the Evil Empire” because George Steinbrenner would overpay for free agents, pushing small market teams out of competition because they could not afford to take huge financial risks on players (like $120 million on Jason Giambi, or $40 million on Carl Pavano). Well, isn’t that what the Red Sox did last winter? JD Drew and Julio Lugo were not worth $70 million and $36 million respectively, but the Red Sox needed those positions filled. People hate the Yankees because they feel that they bought A.L. East and World Series championships since they could afford to pay these players. News flash – the Yankees haven’t made a World Series since 2003 (winless since 2000) and have been knocked out of the postseason in the Division Series the last three seasons. The Red Sox, on the other hand, are coming off their second World Series title in four years, won the A.L. East in 2007 (and could have in 2006 if they weren’t decimated by injuries), and have officially swayed the balance of power in their division from the Bronx to Yawkey’s Way. It is now the Yankees who refuse to mortgage their future by shipping off multiple top prospects to get one superstar (the reason trade talks stalled on Monday night is because the Yankees would not send the Twins Cabrera, Hughes, and pitcher Ian Kennedy). And to top it off, thanks to their 2004 World Series victory, Red Sox Nation is taking over our country. Every unaffiliated baseball fan with even the most remote connection to Boston is turning into a diehard Sox fan. It makes me sick.

Now I’m not saying the Yankees have completely changed their ways – the salaries of Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada prove that – but, without a doubt, the Yankees are no longer the sole “Evil Empire”.

© LameSports.net