Papelbon signs

You can cross off one more distraction from the Spring Training list. Jonathan Papelbon signed his contract yesterday. Even this “distraction” was really a non-issue. Papelbon wasn’t going to hold out, or become a free agent, or anything like that. He just wanted to get a little bit more money than the Sox were planning. And, really, who can blame him? He was, apparently, looking for something around $900,000 for next year. The Sox were haggling over that? They can’t pay the best closer in the game as much as they give Schilling for not being fat? I understand there’s a pay scale structure with younger players. I’ll even go along with the moneyball belief that closers are overvalued. But, sometimes it’s not about the money. They need to sew up Pap for a “long” term deal soon. I can only assume that a three year deal is at least being floated out there. If the Sox can’t find Alex Cora money somewhere to give Papelbon, there’s something gravely wrong with their system.