Mixed Signals

What are the Red Sox doing? Are they building for the future? Is 2010 really a “bridge” year, in that they're waiting for 2011 to compete for a title? If it is, then quit the talk on Matt Holliday, Jason Bay and John Lackey. Spare me the speculation on Adrian Gonzalez. I don't even want to hear about Adrian Beltre. As Sarah Palin taught us, you can’t build a bridge to nowhere (but apparently you can abandon your post as Governor). Don’t half-ass it, Red Sox. Either you’re going to “rebuild,” or you’re not.

It’s a cruddy free agent market. If this were really a “bridge” year, they would’ve held onto Alex Gonzalez, tried to figure out what to do with Jed Lowrie, and looked for a long-term solution at short in the winter of 2010. If this were really a “bridge” year, they would’ve retained Mike Lowell, let him play out his contract (and let Julio Lugo play out his in St. Louis) and sought a long-term solution at third in the winter of 2010. They would’ve also traded for Roy Halladay so they could rid themselves of Josh Beckett, who'll likely be looking for a contract he doesn't deserve, in the winter of 2010 – I’m calling this the “replace an ace” strategy – and continue to compete for a championship with top-flight starting pitching.

But instead, the Sox are behaving like the classic middler at a college party. He knows he can’t get with the hot, easy girls because they leave with the jocks and the suave, Adrian Grenier-type dudes. There’s the hot girls who won’t cheat on their high school boyfriends back home, and there’s the hot girls who spend a lot of time in church, well, God bless 'em. The middler finds there’s not much left to choose from, but it’s adequate and perhaps exciting in the short-term, so what the heck. Spin the wheel.

That’s what the Sox did giving a three-year contract to Marco Scutaro, a 34-year old career utility man coming off a career year. That’s what the Sox are doing in trading Mike Lowell, a productive bat and popular player, to Texas, paying the Rangers to take him, and getting in return a 25 year-old catcher, Max Ramirez, who can’t field his position and hit .230 in 357 at-bats between Triple-A and the Majors the last two years. People are saying “he can hit!” What? Oh, and did I mention, they love free agent Adrian Beltre so much, a .270 career hitter with average power from the hot corner, they’re looking to sign him to a multi-year deal worth eight figures annually. Did I mention the Sox also lassoed Boof Bonser on Thursday? 

This is no way to build a winning team. This team won’t win a World Series next year with Adrian Beltre and Marco Scutaro on the left side of their infield. They won’t win a World Series in the future with that combination. Because just like Lugo, they are giving too many years and too much money to marginal players. And Jason Bay isn’t the answer, either: .250 with one homer in his three playoff series with the Red Sox. He’s apparently a great guy and a good hitter, but not an elite hitter for the middle of the Boston lineup.

Heading into this offseason, the Sox should’ve picked one or the other. To quote the Clash, “should I stay or should I go?” Stay, and you wait another year for greatness. Go, and you make a blockbuster trade or land the big free agent. Instead, they’re somewhere in between, filling up on empty calories at the snackbar. I'd be more happy if they'd just stayed home and taken the year off.