This seems like a sweet deal to me. The Sox get a young (27) closer with creds (2009 AL Rookie of the Year) and great stats: "through 174 career innings he’s got a 2.07 ERA and 174/49 K/BB ratio." The bonus: he's under team control through 2014. The only worry in my mind is his injury history, which Peter Abraham breaks down: "Bailey had Tommy John elbow surgery in 2005 while at Wagner College. He also an elbow procedure in September of 2010 and opened the 2011 season on the disabled list with a forearm strain." Yikes! But assuming that his scared arm holds up, we've now got ourselves quite a weapon sitting beneath the Fenway bleachers. I assume Sweeney will be keeping the seat warm for Kalish when he's ready
The price doesn't bother me either: the Sox obviously didn't trust Reddick to grow any more at the plate (although i'll miss stories like this one) and . Don't know much about the prospects but when you have the opportunity to get a young arm for such a relatively low price, IMO you jump on it. Who knows if and when prospects will live up to their hype?
PeteAbe has some good observations about how this affects the Sox. Money quote:
Jonathan Papelbon will get $12.5 million this season from the Phillies. Heath Bell is down for $9 million from the Marlins and Joe Nathan will cost the Rangers $7.3 million.Of course, winning the off season and the regular season are two entirely different things, but I like what Cherington's done so far. The fact that he's been able to do it on the cheap as well is the icing on the cake!
Papelbon is 31, Bell is 34, and Nathan is 37.
In 27-year-old Andrew Bailey and 26-year-old Mark Melancon, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington landed two young late-inning relievers who will cost the team approximately $4 million in 2012.
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In essence, then, the Sox bullpen has gone from Bard-Papelbon to Melancon-Bailey. It almost has to be a step down, but hopefully not too big of one. At the same time, the rotation has replaced Lackey and Wakefield with Aceves and Bard. That almost has to be a step up, but neither Aceves nor Bard are proven starters. And finally, the Sox have saved some money, but given up some prospects.
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