Who would have known? I hope you know I’m being sarcastic at this point but the Adrian Gonzalez deal is finally done. After waiting since December after all the, is he coming is he not coming mess. According to CSNNE, the Red Sox have reached an agreement on a seven year, $154 million dollar contract extension. The Red Sox expected to announce the deal later today.
As we all know Gonzalez come to the Red Sox via trade from San Diego and now he is going to sign the biggest deal for this current ownership group.
Most people who aren’t regular blog readers may ask, what took so long for the deal to get done? There are two reasons why. The first being Gonzalez did just have surgery on his right shoulder that only happen a little over a month and a half prior to the trade. They wanted to evaluate his recover and ability to play following the surgery. This is the reason the Red Sox will tell you.
But everyone knows the real reason is to get around paying to luxury tax on Gonzalez for at least one year. The Red Sox have Gonzalez this year for a bargain price of $6.5 Million for 2011, had they signed an extension prior to opening day his luxury tax value would be $20 Million even though he doesn’t make that much in 2011. You would have to pay a lot more than his value all because you signed on the dotted line to soon. If you recall the Red Sox did the same thing with Josh Beckett’s deal last season.
Most Red Sox fans like me believe that the deal was sign seal and postdated in December seeing they gave up four of their top prospects to get him. If they did not know that they would sign him long term do you really think they would have bet the farm on him? The Red Sox are the smartest team when it comes to using their prospects and they don’t just give them away for nothing.
With Gonzalez signed long term the Red Sox may have to repair the Green Monster because he is going to be hitting bombs off the wall for years to come.
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