In Edwin Jackson, agent Scott Boras has a 28-year-old free agent innings eater with a touch of upside. Weeks before pitchers and catcher report, Boras has been unable to work his usual magic. Rumor has it a one-year deal is more likely than multiyear; here's the latest…
- The Red Sox are "most likely out of the picture" for Jackson, a baseball source tells Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com. The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo reported yesterday Boston was in the $5-6MM range on a one-year deal, and Edes says Jackson has "better deals on the table from other clubs." Though it happened with Carlos Pena, a pay cut for Jackson would be a tough pill for Boras to swallow. The righty earned $8.35MM last year. If Jackson lands under $10MM on a one-year deal, his signing will likely be heralded as one of the offseason's best from a team point-of-view.
Dave Cameron suggested Oakland as a good landing spot for Edwin earlier today
Billy Beane,
Please jump all over this if he’s willing to do a 1 year deal there
Only thing the A’s have in mimd is trading him’
well, they’d sign him so they could let peacock, parker, and gray develop some more in AAA, but otherwise, yes
…which would put him on a winning team. You have a better idea of who the definite contenders are in July anyway.
Go inflate your stats then go play on a playoff team.
No one feels sorry for Boras. He has run salaries and payrolls up to ridiculous amounts……..as fans we’re sick of it. Instead of parity in baseball we have the Yankees buying pennants and championships, the BoSox trying to do the same, as well as other teams. Boras is finding out that his past ridiculous efforts have tapped out the few teams that can afford these guys. Now he’s left paying “small market” prices for the small and big market teams. Time to take a bite of humble pie, Scott.
It still amazes me that people still complain about the Yankees or any other team buying championships. There has not been a repeat champion since the Yankees of 1998-2000. A different team has won every year. Sure Boras drives up prices, but isnt it the owners ultimate decision. Its not anyones fault that the owner of your favorite team doesnt want to spend money to win, some owners are stingy with their money. You can spend as much money as you want, but until you win a championship, you havent bought one my friend.
Oh please. Though pumping money doesn’t guarantee you a championship, it certainly increases your odds considerably.
And I’m sick of this “stingy owner” retort. Not ever team has the revenue to gamble on 200 million dollar contracts. The Yankees and Red Sox’s nostalgia-funded payrolls should not be used as the measuring sticks for how much an owner should or should not invest in without being called cheap.
Tiger, I totally agree. Furthermore, while the Yankees do spend a lot of money for salaries, they are merely doing so within the established rules of baseball, which sadly has become a business. Their owners spend the money to buy an exciting – if not always successful – product, which is good for their fans and for baseball. What’s NOT good for baseball is when these billionaire owners DON’T spend any money on players and sit back and line their own pockets with their share of the revenue-sharing payouts, and fans are forced to watch an inferior product.
There are different revenue streams for different teams because of market size. This unfortunately isn’t the NFL where there is a salary cap. This is MLB where we there are essentially the HAVE’S and HAVE NOT’S. 2011 World Champs – the Cardinals had a payroll of $105M (11th highest in mlb). 2010 – Giants had a payroll of $97M (10th highest). 2009 – Yankees – $201M (1st). 2008 – Phillies – $98M (12th). 2007 – Red Sox – $143M (2nd). 2006 – Cardinals – $89M (11th). 2005 – White Sox – $75M (13th). 2004 – Red Sox – $124M – (2nd). Yankees and Red Sox are always in the postseason it seems. You have you’re blinders on.
If people are going to be using the whole buying championships argument that what you typed me has no validation to anything. If these teams are buying championships, then they should win out every year. The top five teams should be winning every single year without question but yet, what you showed me that 5 times out of 8 a team in the mid range is going to win. And no matter what, the owners have the money to fund a team over $100 million dollars, if they didnt, they wouldnt own a team, its how they want to spend it. You have to spend money to make money, which is why certain teams like the Marlins are now relevant, the spent the money this offseason and got the most press, the most attention, the most anything. I would love to see how dramatically their ticket sales increase due to the new stadium/players, why? Because they spent money.
Teams like Oakland arent drawing any attention/revenue because the owner isnt willing to spend money to put a good team because he cant move his team? So he is trading away some of the best young players in the game, year after year until he gets his way. If you are going to be an owner, spend your money how you please, just know that teams are going to blow you away if youre going to be stingy with it. Its the truth.
Prime example-Detroit Tigers. People always knock Detroit, always put it down, talk about the recession, just totally ignorant comments. But guess what Illitch is spending the money, and guess what, fans are excited as they have ever been about the Tigers. They show up to the stadium, in the middle of a complete dump, and for 4-5 hours have the best time of their life, why? Cause the owner has supplied them with a good team.
Well, he did get 214 million for Prince, and at 5% got himself a cool 10 million.
Pena signed for 7.5 x 1 yr and he hi 225, and he got Madson 8.5 x 2 yrs in a tough market for closers.
EJ for some reason is not very much in demand, but lets see what his final numbers are
Well, the Tigers offered Oswalt $10MM…
Oswalt seems very good at getting what he wants, then declining for no apparent reason.
you’re doing it wrong
Come on, of course we’re out on Jackson, and we’re basically out on Oswalt. Ben Cherington couldn’t sign anything even if he were deaf.
dunno why you’re faulting cherington for the oswalt/jackson negotiations. he said today he thinks it’s unlikely they’ll add a starter which makes the scutaro trade a huge failure, but he doesn’t set the budget and isn’t responsible for the vast majority of the current payroll
I mean, granted, I’m ready to blame Ben Cherington for the fact that my apartment didn’t have hot water yesterday, but I guess it’s less the failure to sign a starting pitcher and more, as you said, the Scutaro trade in retrospect. This whole thing is making the offseason seem like a debacle.
Honestly if you asked me today to pick four playoff teams I’m not sure I could in good faith list the Red Sox as one, which is what’s really getting to me.
(Also I was really excited about that sign/sign joke)
i agree about the offseason; i just don’t think these results can be laid at cherington’s feet. the root of the problem is the budget and that’s beyond his control. if epstein were still here, i’d give him a greater share of the blame because he made the payroll what it is (presumably with knowledge of what the limits would ultimately be)
i think you’ll probably own the fact that you’re being characteristically hyperbolic about the sox and the playoffs. they weren’t the ‘best team evah’ last offseason and they aren’t a non-playoff team this year. i’d wager that the GMs of whichever 4 teams you’d pick in front of boston would confirm that fact
Hey, someone’s gotta be hyperbolic, right? Starts the good debates. (If that’s a characteristic trait of mine, I’d hope you also know rationality is too :P) But yes, to an extent. I would put Boston in the “playoff contender” category, but not as “playoff favorites” like I did last year (NYY, DET, TEX, and LAA all being in that particular category).
It’s true about Theo. At least this is bringing his messes to light. Locally I felt like I was the only one who realized that he didn’t make a good move since the 2003-2004 offseason, but until Lackey and Dice-K come off the books (I’d say Crawford too, but that’s a WAYS off) I feel like there’s no way to fix it, so it feels like Ben is letting us idle and trading away our shortstop for nothing.
The one other thing about the payroll: When did we become that team? Loge seats are 95-99 dollars a pop still >_> (I know that doesn’t actually matter, but it makes me feel better to say it for some reason).
‘hyperbolic’ instead of ‘irrational’ was deliberate, yup
while the ticket prices alone might not matter, the general point you’re driving at does. ownership is certainly not poor and is not close to taking a loss, either
forbes did report a -$1M operating income for the sox in 2011, but that’s next to a +$40M the year before and +$26M the year before that. the value of the franchise has increased almost $100M in that short time
i have no problem with ownership wanting to keep a profit margin at a certain level or with wanting to stay under the luxury tax. but that’s a, well, luxury that ought only be enjoyed when you’ve consistently produced excellent results. the teams of the last few years have been great, but the results have not
we’re not talking about adding $50M in payroll. not even $15M. we’re talking about five or six million dollars here, on a one year contract, that could make a world of difference in the 2012 team
i don’t have any serious complaints about cherington and i’m not concerned that the sox will miss the playoffs, but i absolutely do have a problem with ownership pinching pennies right now. they’re a savvy group that’s looked pretty foolish for the last 6 months
Very well said. I’m glad this posted (I wonder what was holding it up o.O). I think that puts a much better focus on my current frustrations with the club.
You’d think they could just cut costs on that Premier League team they bought, right? ;P
lengthy, harmless reply eaten by mods. so sick of that. hopefully it’ll post in a bit ’cause i’m not rewriting that one
Honestly it’s gotten to the point where I copy any comment a paragraph’s length or longer just in case it gets flagged for no reason at all
If Gordon Edes’s article in the link is correct it would appear from this excerpt and I quote:“The Red Sox go into camp with three certainties in their rotation: Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz. They plan to bring relievers Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves to camp with the intention of them becoming starters, and general manager Ben Cherington has signed three experienced starters with injury histories — Vicente Padilla, Carlos Silva and Aaron Cook — to minor league deals with an invitation to big league camp.”Now of course this entire situation could change there is still 2 plus weeks left before Pitchers and Catchers report to camp. But as it stands right now I wonder if Bobby V is having 2nd thoughts about his comment ““Another pitcher would be, I guess OK,” added Valentine. “It’s not at the top of my wish list.”I wonder what is at the top of Bobby V’s wish list.
i’d bet valentine is eager for a midseason return from matsuzaka, a guy he’s always liked a lot
i’m not all that eager, but he probably is
Especially with Matsuzaka throwing from a mound.
Wild card in all of this is the lack of any mention (from anywhere) of Tazawa.. A full 1+ season back from TJ and he should be throwing as good as he did when he 1st came to the states.. Something am sure is not lost on Cherrington..
Tazawa pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen after returning last year, so (while I haven’t heard anything either way) they may be looking at him as a reliever. Assuming they are still looking at him as a starter (which I think they are) he will likely need at least a half a year in AAA to work his pitch counts back up, and would have to earn his way to the majors by pitching well, so even if he does pitch in Boston next year it wont be to start the season.
I didn’t make the post plain (again) as since Matsuzaka is only now just throwing from a mound, figured Tazawa would not be starting the season with Boston, but hopefully not take several months.
Remember he was working his way up the system last year with his rehab stint and had troubles with his command, then that is nothing unusual coming back from TJ.
Cheers for the update on Tazawa.. Thought (from memory) he was starting games and going 1-3 IP, rather than relieving.. memory gone awry again..
Agreed. This group of starters and potentials lacks guys who can eat up innings. Lester seems like the only guarantee to get 200 IP or close. Buchholz and Beckett will HOPEFULLY be healthy/effective to get up to 175. Aceves should be able to throw a lot of innings, but you have to wonder if Bard will be allowed to go over 150.
Right about now, I’d be signing Wakefield to to be the 5th starter/long man to simply eat innings and give his usual average performance (read: keep the Sox in the game and/or take pressure off the pen). If he lasts through the first half, Dice-K might be ready after the Break…
Oh man, so many IF’s…
I have to make this argument every time the words ‘Red Sox’ and ‘pitchers’ are mentioned so I’m going to make it short and sweet:
Beckett – avg 30 starts per season in Boston and healthy last year
Buchholz – healthy before last season ended = healthy when this one starts
Bard/Aceves/Doubront/Padilla/Cook/Maine/Silva > Wakefield
If we are out, can we atleast get scutaro back?
Just pay the man, bard will be a question mark, so will the 5th spot. What happens if beckett, lester or buch spends significant time on the DL? This is such a frustrating offseason.
They should be out. Sox can’t be spending more than 3 million dollar!? They’ve got to keep all income for the next great Henry yacht.
liverpool brah
here comes the time when Neal Huntington comes in as a knight in shining armour riding on a white horse and signs Jackson to a 1 or 2 year deal. i have a feeling the Pirates could be a darkhorse to land him
The only problem I would have if the Pirates signed him is that I don’t really want to see anybody bumped from the rotation. I guess I would be ok with McDonald going to the bullpen, but I think he’s better in the rotation.
well the entire pirate fan base is reacting like they want correia burned at the stake and then released. in pathetic. the guys was an all star for crying out loud!! his only downfall was his piss-poor outings at home (if im not mistaken he was 2-8 at home in 2011)
Correia’s WAR total in 2010 and 2011 was a whopping 0.0. He doesn’t have any business starting in the majors. I’d love to see the Pirates take a flyer on Edwin Jackson or Roy Oswalt.
If I remember right, Charlie Morton may not be ready at the beginning of the year, offseason surgery. I like McDonald but getting anything more than 6 innings out of him is a bonus; frankly, getting more than 6 innings out of any starter in the rotation is a bonus. They aren’t a bad unit, but they don’t eat innings either. Getting a relative horse like Jackson would be outstanding.
someone is wrong. Yesterday it was reported that E-jax was NOW seeking a one year deal, and that the sox were the only one offering him a one year deal. In the espn link, it says he wants a multi year deal. so it went from him wanting a one year deal yesterday to a multi year deal again today?
Surprised Boras hasn’t gotten his buddy Mike Illitch back on the phone yet…
I think the Braves’ incredible overpayment of innings-eater Derek Lowe has most teams wary of overspending in years and $$$ on middle-of-the-rotation players who are just “guys.”
We would also have accepted A.J. Burnett as an example…and he still has 2 years to go on his deal.
Indians….offer him $10M. You offered Pena $8M….throw in the fact that Carmona was making $7M and isn’t getting paid (on the restricted list) and $10M is doable, even for them. Masteron, Ubaldo, and Jackson 1-2-3….we need pitching cause we can’t outslug the Tiggers.
What’s so great about Edwin Jackson anyways? In his 5 full seasons in the bigs, he has two sub 4.00 seasons of era. Sure that doesn’t mean much. How about his career 1.47 whip? This guy isn’t an elite pitcher. He’s not even a real good pitcher. He’s a 4 or 5 and he’s not worth more than $5 or $6 million and surely no more than 2 or 3 years.
What’s so great about Edwin Jackson anyways? In his 5 full seasons in the bigs, he has two sub 4.00 seasons of era. Sure that doesn’t mean much. How about his career 1.47 whip? This guy isn’t an elite pitcher. He’s not even a real good pitcher. He’s a 4 or 5 and he’s not worth more than $5 or $6 million and surely no more than 2 or 3 years.