Gordon Edes, late of Yahoo! late of the Boston Globe and now writing for ESPN Boston doesn’t like Red Sox’ recent moves very much. He notes that the Sox don’t usually sign free agent pitchers to big deals. He outlines Lackey’s health history, making what seems like a more aggressive case for Lackey as an injury risk than I’ve seen from anyone else.
Edes’ takeaways: (a) the Red Sox have money to burn and feel that Lackey’s worth the risk; (b) the Sox were kind of improvising here, having not initially planned to go after Lackey but calling the audible once the Bay negotiations hit an impasse; and (c) this could all be a long play to cover for the absence of Josh Beckett, who Edes thinks the Sox may allow to walk next year.
Finally, Edes doesn’t like the Cameron signing. While Buster Olney characterizes it and a potential Adrian Beltre signing as the Sox building “the second best pitching and defense team after the Mariners,” Edes simply worries about whether or not there will be enough pop in the Sox’ lineup. It’s a legitimate concern.
This doesn’t happen often, but the Sox’ moves yesterday were largely overshadowed by what went down in Lee-Halladay land. Are these moves as unpopular with Red Sox fans as they appear to be with Edes? Edes usually seems to be sensible about such things, but I feel like he’s being overly harsh here.
