Off Season Chatter

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in about a week and a half.  The reason- not a lot has happened.  We're in the off season, which can be almost as exciting as during the season (almost).  My youngest brother tells me that the off season is his favorite part of baseball because it's more the business aspect of the game.  I wouldn't say that it's my favorite of baseball, but it can be exciting.

Photo from MLBDailyDish

The GM has to get the pieces of the puzzle to make the whole team complete.  Last off season, Cherington was able to bring in players like Napoli, Victorino, Gomes, Ross, and Dempster.  This off season, the Red Sox have Napoli, Saltalamacchia, Ellsbury, and Drew hitting the free agent market.

It's already been reported that Drew will not be coming back to the Red Sox, as he's seeking a multi-year deal, and the Red Sox offer that to him (Bogaerts will/should be taking over at shortstop).  My guess is Ellsbury won't be returning either, as he's represented by Scott Boras.  It's been reported that Boras is seeking a Carl Crawford-like deal for Ellsbury, and there's a slim chance the Red Sox will be doing that again.

The Red Sox are said to be in negotiations to bring Salty back, the hold up being in the length of the contract.  The Red Sox would like a 2 year deal, while Salty's seeking 3-4 years.  The Red Sox don't seem to see Salty as a long-term catcher for the organization, with prospects Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart in their system.

If I had to put money on any of these four free agents coming back, I'd bet Napoli would be the one back next season.  The Red Sox originally wanted to sign Napoli to a multi-year deal last year, but when questions surfaced about Napoli's hips holding up, it was reduced to a single-year deal.  There have been reports that the Red Sox have extended a multi-year deal to Napoli, but those reports have been discredited (at this time).

Photo from Wikipedia

We're upon the time of year when "mystery teams" and "multiple suitors" are the words showing up in many reports when it comes to free agents.  If I wrote about all the rumors that are surfacing regarding the Red Sox and free agents, I would be writing non-stop.  Instead, I've been tweeting and retweeting a lot of the rumors on my Twitter account.  You can either follow it on the right side of the blog or follow me on Twitter: @BornIntoItInIA.  When credible or definitive information is reported, I will write about it in the blog.

In other news:

• Ben Cherington was named Executive of the Year.  He received 15 votes from a panel of 31 Major League executives.  The last Red Sox GM to win the award was Dick O'Connell in 1975.  
• Terry Francona beat out John Farrell for Manager of the Year (Farrell was second).  There was some negative comments being made about Francona winning when Farrell took the Red Sox all the way to win the World Series.  Personally, I think Francona did a fantastic job with the Indians, who weren't supposed to do well at all this season and made it to the Wild Card game.