Drew Rumors

I said in a recent post that with the new Sox front office focus on confidentiality, I wouldn't put too much stock in rumors. That said, I am going to take the report from the Rocky Mountain News that the Sox are offering a 2 year/$30 million contract to outfielder J.D. Drew with a big grain of salt. As far as I can tell, the Rocky Mountain News is the only paper/outlet reporting this. None of the Boston papers are independently reporting or verifying this. Gammons doesn't have this. I don't think it's necessarily accurate. Let's also not forget how off everyone's "inside information" was on the Matsuzaka numbers. I'm going to wait a bit on this one.

The pundits on the radio were all up in arms about how signing Drew is a huge mistake because he'd never live up to the expectations the Boston media and fans would place on him. He's too laid back to replace Nixon's "Dirt Dog" reputation, and he's not talented enough to replace Manny's bat. I think they're missing the point on a couple of levels. Drew would out-perform Nixon easily, both offensively and defensively. Second, laid-back is not necessarily bad for Boston. Wasn't Johnny Damon laid back? He was a California-space cadet-type also. He was an idiot, by his own styling. That helped him in Boston, it didn't hurt him. Finally, if we're looking at Drew trying to replace Manny- that also means that Manny may be shopped and traded. We need to look at this as a total package replacement. Currently, we have Manny in left, a big hole in right, and Wily Mo with no position. Bring in Drew for right field, slot Wily Mo in left, trade Manny for pitching and prospects, and you may have something there. Wily Mo could be an adequate defender in left, Drew is a plus defender in right, and could spell Coco in center. Offensively, the combination of Drew and Wily Mo could be almost equal to what you're losing in Manny and Nixon. Add to that some pitching and prospects, and the Sox may come out of this all right.

I'm speculating wildly of course, and it's based on very little- less than very little, if you consider that this is really only one published report, from two time zones away. It's very interesting, though, and not one that with which I'd be too unhappy. A Pena-Crisp-Drew outfield, if healthy, could be pretty promising. I'm not saying I wouldn't like a Ramirez-Crisp-Soriano outfield, with Pena rotating through all of those spots as the fourth guy, but the other option isn't bad.