Share

Price Gets Paid, But Boston May Not

At first look, the Red Sox seems to have no room for the veteran outfielder since their lineup is already filled with talented youngsters.

Advertisement

Price win the prestigious pitching award in 2012.

Ratings have nose-dived for NESN, the regional sports network 80 percent owned by the Red Sox, a reflection of the team’s irrelevance and inability to remain remotely competitive in three of the last four years.

Last season, Boston chose not to splurge for Jon Lester and it hurt them.

You can point to Price’s postseason record, and that’s a legitimate knock, but odds are he’ll change that eventually.

When a J.A. Happ can command $36 million over three years from the Toronto Blue Jays, that gives you an idea of the inflated market value for starting pitching. Simply put, the Jays don’t overtake the Yankees to win the AL East without him.

Alderson’s team had its most successful season in more than a decade.

The kind of role he’ll play for his new Red Sox team is expected to be the same to that of what was expected of him with the Yankees last season.

Well, there’s a new sheriff in Boston, and Dave Dombrowski has never had a problem spending other people’s money.

It certainly sounds like Greinke might have had the Red Sox at the top of his destination wish list, while Dombrowski eyed Price as the No. 1 option on the market.

But even if he doesn’t, the Sox have depth in their starting rotation, and they might have a budding star in lefty Eduardo Rodriguez.

Price induced swings and misses on more than 34 percent of the balls he tossed outside the zone a year ago, which easily represents a career best and was a big factor in the best overall swinging-strike rate of his career at 11.9 percent.

Funny, in fact, how much one such ace can mean to a ballclub. Kimbrel is arguably one of the top 3 closers in the game.

But there are exceptions to every rule, as Henry proved by signing off – kicking and screaming, no doubt – on Price.

Advertisement

Price was acquired by the Blue Jays near the trade deadline last season in a deal with the Detroit Tigers. It’s a big-money risk, but that’s the punishment the Red Sox paid for needing such a substantial rotation makeover. Yes, it could work out nice for the first few seasons, but as Price gets older and begins to digress it’s going to go down as a historically bad contract. They have their ace.

Red Sox agree to deal with pitcher David Price