A Couple Youngsters

A couple players of the young core of the Red Sox were in the news this weekend.

Jon Lester finally finalized his contract extension with the Sox. It was another case of the Red Sox buying up the free agency of a young star. In this case, Lester signed a club-friendly 5-year $30 million deal. If he turns into half the pitcher he looks to be, it will be a steal for the Sox. They even hold a club option at the end that could extend the deal if he’s still a bargain. The good thing for Lester? He gets a little contract security. Sure, he gave up some money if he evolves into an ace. But, even if he blows out his elbow tomorrow, he gets $30 million. Not a bad deal. Plus, when the contract is over, he can still get a monster deal if he deserves it. I still think these contracts are more beneficial to a small market club. The Red Sox could probably afford to just pay Lester what he deserves when the time comes, and not take that chance that a team like Florida may have to take. In the Marlins case, they need to lock up young talent cheap. They can’t pay Lester the $10 million he’ll deserve in a year or two. But, they can gamble on $6 million a year and hope for the best. In any event, it looks like the Sox are pretty happy that the Twins turned down the Lester-Santana deal. The Sox have now locked up Lester, Youkilis and Pedroia to long-term deals. That means the young nucleus of the team will be around for quite a while.

Speaking of Pedroia, he was the other youngster in the news. He had a little injury trouble, and needed to be checked out. The injury itself was a bit annoying. What really has people up in arms is that it happened in the World Baseball Classic. People are screaming that this is why players shouldn’t be allowed in the tournament. It’s an outrage that the reigning MVP hurt himself in such a silly game. The problem is, it’s not really the WBC’s fault. If Pedroia had turned down the invitation to play, he still would have been playing in games. The Sox play several exhibition games a week after all. Why wouldn’t he have hurt himself in those games? Did he try to go too hard too early? That’s really his fault, not the WBC. The only issue I would have with the WBC is if they said he was fine to play, and risked further injury for the good of team USA. Similar to the Dominicans playing Papi at first, even when he had complained about a sore shoulder. The Red Sox would have rested Ortiz more, I would imagine. But, in this case, it just looks like a little fluky thing that won’t be a big deal. Heck, I remember Ken Griffey Jr blowing out a knee in a Spring Training game. Nobody was calling Spring Training a useless waste of time.

Well…nobody new, at least.