Yesterday the Red Sox came to terms with closer Jonathan Papelbon on a one-year, $6.25 million deal, avoiding salary arbitration. The deal is the third highest ever for a player eligible for arbitration for the first time, and highest ever for a first-time eligible pitcher. In his 3+ years with Boston, Paps has saved 113 games while posting a minuscule 1.84 ERA. He has been named an All Star each of his 3 full seasons. The signing locks up Papelbon for 2009, but word is that talks are still on-going on a multi-year deal. The agreement keeps in tact Theo Epstein's perfect record of never having gone to arbitration as GM of the Sox.
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In less exciting news, the Sox also signed Javier Lopez and traded David Aardsma today. Personally I liked Aardsma (I was hoping he made the playoff roster over Timlin) but it didn't look like there was going to be room for him in '09 anyway.
Glad to have Papelbon secured for the year, it'll cost them more in the end though.
Papelbon's new attitude should be Shut up and pitch
Now we have Paps for next year time to lock him up long term. Hopefully a multi year deal can get done before the end of next season.
they should lock him up to a 5 year deal but what i read said they are only looking to make it 2 or 3
why sign lopez? is there even room for him?
I can't imagine Paps EVER playing for anyone else...but I've said the same about many in the past.
Theo / The Sox deserve big credit for avoiding arbitration. The team is forced to give all the reasons the player isn't worth as much as they think they are and it ends up causing bad blood. Makes it much easier for the players to want to leave when free agency rolls around. It's the type of thing that doesn't get noticed but really makes a huge difference.
I have no problem with signing Lopez. The only other lefty they have in the pen is Oki who is not a lefty specialist. Not saying Lopez is the answer in that role, but having him around at a reasonable cost is fine with me.
i guess i see your point about lopez to a degree since he is a lefty but i dont think of him as a lefty specialist. there will be 6 spots in the pen and i thought they were already filled: paps, jedi, oki, manny, saito and ramirez. so where does lopez fit in there?
Beats Clemens.
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