Pedroia Press Conference Recap via Boston.com Video
Here's a recap of Dustin Pedroia's press conference announcing his new 6 year contract extension with the Sox (video after the jump).
Day: December 3, 2008
Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox agree to extension
There's been a common trend throughout Major League Baseball for teams to lock up their young talent early giving them more front loaded money in longer term deals, while effectively buying potential free agent years at a discount. This strategy allows a team to lock in young talent at reasonable annual dollar amounts over the long term. In Boston, you might say "they just "Nomar-ed" him into a long term deal".
While most teams have taken this strategy against players they have a "high degree of confidence" will be above average players over the life of the deal (i.e. Evan Longoria or Troy Tulowitzki), the Red Sox have the luxury of extending such an offer to the reigning American League MVP, Dustin Pedroia.
Thanks to a six year, $40.5 million dollar contract extension that will be formally announced at a 3 pm press conference today, Dustin Pedroia will be manning second base at Fenway Park for the foreseeable future. The contract, which has been in negotiation since mid-August, includes both a $1.5 million dollar signing bonus and a club option for the seventh year at $11 million dollars ($500,000 team buyout).
Lars Anderson can play left
In my interview with Peter Gammons, he mentioned the possibility of Lars Anderson playing the outfield should the Sox sign Mark Teixeira. But did Lars have outfield experience? I asked him. He says: "I played left for two years in high school but they haven't mentioned it...I haven't really concerned myself with much of that talk this offseason."
Should Sox sign Teixeira?
My article on why the Red Sox should not sign Mark Teixeira certainly got a bit of debate going. Paul over at Yanks Fan Sox Fan wrote a nice article rebutting my claims. Check it out.