Jon Heyman’s latest column is up, and among the many tidbits in it is word from “Red Sox people” who anticipate that Adrian Beltre is going to seek a contract with roughly the same terms of his big post-2004 deal, which ran for five years and $64 million. Heyman’s sources say there’s no way the Red Sox match that.
As Heyman notes, the per-year dollars don’t sound outrageous. He made $10 million this year, and he’s had a great year. I could easily see him getting between $12-13 million, which is what Mike Lowell was getting, you’ll recall. It’s just a matter of the time commitment. No one but the elite, first-time-on-the-market, top-of-the-free-agent-class guys get five years anymore, and I can’t see Boston doing it for Beltre. Maybe three years, but not five.
I don’t see many other teams willing to do that either, however, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Beltre does manage to stick around Boston, only on more favorable terms for the team.
