However, their near-term outlook is pretty strong, especially with Price added to the fold. An outfield replacement and a rebound performance at key defensive positions will continue the improvements made by the team in the second half.
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This brings up a plethora of questions for Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees, and the most obvious one is how will it effect them?
Dombrowski traded a package of prospects to San Diego for closer Craig Kimbrel last month. Price gives them depth, excellence, and certainty. His replacement, Jackie Bradley Jr. would only need to provide league average offense to be an incredibly valuable player because of his defensive prowess. 252 with 14 homers and 42 RBIs in 318 at-bats. Will David Ortiz stave off decline yet again?
“I feel good about the roster as it is”, Dombrowski said. If you could sign Price to 3/90, you would. “I think everyone would probably agree with me on that”.
After the Red Sox were openly saying they didn’t want to spend over a set amount of money following the Sandoval, Hanley, and Porcello signings in 2014, Dombrowski just shelled out and extra $30-32 million a year over the next seven seasons. 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.
The [St. Louis] Cardinals were also in the hunt for Price, and offered him the richest contract in franchise history, a seven-year deal worth at least $30 million less than the Red Sox’s offer.
So far, these challenges have been no match for Price, and that doesn’t figure to change now that he’s in Boston.
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Former middleweight boxing champion Jermain Taylor struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in Little Rock, Arkansas, to charges stemming from three incidents over the past year, including shooting and wounding his cousin and firing a gun at a parade. Sure, this deal may not turn out well for the Red Sox, but if it does it won’t be because of the opt-out. In fact, Price is 6-1 and holds a 1.95 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in 11 career starts at Fenway Park. Year in, year out, Price pounds the strike zone and commands his pitches, and 2015 was no different; he posted his best zone percentage since 2009.
