Hopefully Pedroia is back to his old self by the start of next season.
Tag: dustin pedroia
Mike Napoli, who agreed to a two-year, $32 million deal with the Sox on Friday night, ended up representing a similarly striking demonstration of the value of having created an environment where players want to be. The Red Sox managed to retain a middle-of-the-order power hitter on a deal that fits squarely within the team's preferred model of shorter-term contracts for higher salaries.
According to an industry source, the first baseman had at least one offer of three guaranteed years on the table. He could have made more money than the $32 million where he landed. And at one point on Friday – a head-spinning day of megadeals – the gap between what the Sox offered and what Napoli was sufficient to create some pessimism about the player's return to Boston.
Both Napoli and Pedrioa want to play for a winning team, and Boston is the best place for them to do that.
First, Cano's request for $300-million over 10 years is completely ridiculous.1 Second, I agree Ben Buchanan on this point:
It's a situation which just makes me appreciate the contract Dustin Pedroia signed with the Red Sox earlier this year that much more. Yes, it's been a little harder to make the favorable Pedroia – Cano comparisons these last two years with Pedey dealing with injuries on a regular basis. But given the deal he's on and how he went about signing it, there's really no competition: I'll take Pedroia every time.
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Of course, since the Dodgers exist, maybe he will get soething close to that number. ↩
> “I’m not here to set markets or do anything like that. I want to make sure that the team I’m on wins more games than the other team’s second baseman,” Pedroia said at the press conference to announce his deal. “That’s the way I look at it. Our job is to win games, and that’s what I play for.”
That is why Red Sox fans love cheering for Pedroia.
> Pedroia’s deal looks like a steal based on simple math. Since taking over the full-time second-base job in Boston in 2007, Pedroia has been a consistently above-average player. He’s netted at least three Wins Above Replacement in each full season of his career, with a high of 7.6 WAR in 2011 and an average of slightly less than five WAR per season. Pedroia turns 30 next month, and his new deal doesn’t kick in until 2015, when he’ll be 31 on Opening Day. Let’s be pessimistic and say Pedroia is a four-win player by 2015, then subtract half a win for each of the following six seasons, with him ending up a one-win player (a below-average regular or a bench player) in 2021, the year he turns 38. That would net Pedroia 17.5 WAR over the life of his contract. The current value of a win on the open market, based on recent free-agent prices, is about $6 million. That would make Pedroia worth $105 million over those seven years, producing a small profit on the $100 million the Red Sox will have spent. Even that math isn’t favorable enough to Boston. The combination of inflation and increasing industrywide revenues means we should expect salaries to rise, such that the cost of a win could be significantly higher than $6 million a few years down the road — which could make Pedroia an even bigger bargain.
Once again, Jonah Keri brings us good news about the Red Sox.
Dave Cameron:
> The last couple of years of this deal probably aren’t going to look so great, as Pedroia is unlikely to still be a good starting second baseman in his late thirties. However, the price for the first few years is so low that the overall deal should be a net positive for the Red Sox. Pedroia’s a star who has never been paid like one, and with this deal, he never will be. But he’s going to spend the rest of his career in Boston, most likely, and that is probably more important than maximizing his earnings.
To me, the most important part is that Pedroia is going to spend his whole career in Boston. The fact that the deal makes good financial sense it the proverbial cherry on top.
Good. Pedroia has earned this extension, and, as a Red Sox fan, I am glad to have him in a Red Sox uniform through 2021.
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Dustin Pedroia Now on Twitter
I hope [Over the Monster](http://www.overthemonster.com/2013/2/19/4003686/boston-red-sox-dustin-pedroia-on-twitter-life-now-officially-worth-living) is right and that it is really him. This tweet has my hopes up:
> Goodnight I’m on the twitter if u ain’t hustlin ur getting hustled . My teammates will show me tomm how to use this thing . Out
Fingers crossed.
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Pedroia Leaves Game with Wife in Labor
Congratulations to Dustin and his wife.
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Pedroia on the DL
That’s how this year has been going.