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The Boston Red Sox made a lot of noise this past season when they pulled off a late blockbuster trade, a deal that allowed them to dump some big salaries. The Red Sox also lost some big statistical numbers in that move and big-name agent Scott Boras doesn’t know if they’ll be able to fill the voids given the pool of available players. Scott Boras joined WEEI in Boston with Kirk, Rob and Alex to discuss the big trade this year between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, trends by the big-time franchises in Major League Baseball and some of the more interesting positions in terms of free agency.
What was your reaction this year when Boston and the L.A. Dodgers completed that huge trade and what are your thoughts on the Red Sox and New York Yankees wanting to get under the luxury tax threshold?:
“The goliaths of our game, we’re going to be having each team get $25 million more, double what they got in the national package. We’re having increases, in the billions, with franchise values, with seven or eight teams — Boston, New York markets and the L.A.’s, Chicagos — and we have the irony of this, what the Red Sox were purchased for in the early 2000s what the San Diego Padres were purchased for now. We’ve just seen rapid growth economically. … With those increases in revenues — both annually and franchise values — I think fans are deserving of the commitments on the part of those teams to field perennial competitive clubs that have a chance to win.”
Were you surprised, then, by that trade?:
“I think that a lot of that, when the staff discusses the benefit and detriment of trades, I think the harder part is going to be that I think the Red Sox did a very good job. Adrian Gonzalez, he’s a very valued player, the key to that deal, certainly, I’m sure for the Dodgers. His value going forward and the production he’s had, particularly in the NL West, he’s going to be considered a player whose value and compensation is an asset to a team. As to the risk side of any deal, there’s always packaging where the other parts of the trade are a limit more of a concern. … When you look from the reset side of the Red Sox, the hard part is that going out and getting middle-of-the-lineup bats that give you both power and on-base percentage and run production — that have been the keys for Boston’s success … when they won — to fill those deficiencies with the talent available is going to be a difficult chore.”
How do you value the second baseman market over the next couple years?:
“The key thing is when you have duality where you can get Gold Glove defense and then gain middle-of-the-lineup performance out of a second baseman, it puts you in a place where — when you look at players like Pedroia or Cano — when they perform at those levels for those teams … it just gives you a real advantage. … You get down to the numbers and it’s two or three as opposed to corner outfielders, where there may be 17 of them.”
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