Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.com reports that Stephen Drew, sidelined since the end of the World Series after no one bit on him in the free agency market due to the compensation pick attached to him, has a job at long last. He’s back where he was last year: on a one-year deal with the Boston Red Sox. And, since he is going back to Boston, obviously no compensation pick attaches.
Heyman says the deal is for a pro-rated version of the $14 million he would’ve received from the Sox if he had accepted the qualifying offer they made him last fall. Or, roughly, $10 million. Of course the reason Drew didn’t accept the offer is that he and his agent Scott Boras assumed they could do better than that on the market. That decision cost Drew $4 million and a good chunk of 2014.
But now he has a home. One which needs him, frankly, due to the ineffectiveness of and then the injury to third baseman Will Middlebrooks. One suspects that Drew will move into the shortstop position he occupied last year and Xander Bogaerts will move back to third, though Drew can handle third as well if Boston decides that it wants Bogaerts to be their shortstop now and forever.
That leaves Kendrys Morales as the last of the players put in limbo due to receiving qualifying offers last year.