The FO are suddenly having a tremendous off-season. Unbelievable. They got great value for Youk and a great deal for Pedroia, and they’ve picked up great bench options, strengthened the bullpen into something to be feared, given us about nine options in the rotation.. I’m delighted. And really, really impressed.

How can one justify paying Tex more than double of what Youk is going to make? Glad to see the FO lock down a standup guy and tremendous player for the next 4-5 years. (if the deal goes down)

I think this shows our farm system that they want to build threw it . It gives the minor league coaches credibility and the young guys another thing to point to and strive for. If the numbers are true Tex will be payed 4.5 times more than Youk this is why their going to stay away from free agency and stick to the farm.

If its close to what’s being reported, well then I’m happy and its a good deal for the Sox. I think once Tex got away the club decided to look at why we didn’t win it all last year. Conclusion, the Rays hit like a gazillion homers and pounded our staff for the better part of 5 games(remember the game we really should have lost…)
So figuring regression with Youk and Dustin, getting the same from Bay and Drew, and improvement from 3B(Lowell hopefully), SS, CF, Papi and catcher, its still a 900 run lineup.
So what do you do? Shore up the middle relief and try to improve starters 4 and 5.
Now we just need to sort out the catching problem….

I’ll always have that image of Youk dancing goofily outside the dugout after the Sox hit back-to-back-to-back home runs at Fenway in ‘07. I hope he’s always going to be a Sox.

Now we need to sign Johnny Pap Smear long term…

Sean McAdam says it’s official pending a physical:

The Sox and Kevin Youkilis [stats] have a four-year extension in place that will become official when Youkilis passes his physical tomorrow, an industry source confirmed. The deal will be worth at least $41.25 million, with a $1 million signing bonus, and salaries of $6 million in 2009, $9 million in 2010, and $12 million each in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

We already had Youk under control for 2 more years, he’ll not be all that young after that. I just don’t like signings after career years. But I don’t know, I like Youk enough.

If he keeps up his performance of last year, he would get about $15-18 mil over the next two years, then probably close to $20 mil per in free agency (again, this is if he repeats last year’s incredible performance.) that means Youk is giving up anywhere from $16-20 mil over the next four years in exchange for $35 mil in security. A good deal for both sides.

Awesome contract. Just gotta get Lester and Paps locked down now.

At first it sounded like Youk or his agent was going to wait until after the season when negotiations first started. The price tag for him is cheap considering he’s a gold glove who can play both 1B and 3B (when called upon) and brings a lethal bat to the plate….he could have had a bigger payday being a FA if he really wanted. I know sports is a business and many players run toward the money and are not attracted with the team or the whole package. I don’t know this to be true, but I have a feeling that Youk really likes it playing for the Sox…and we like it too!

To be worth $10MM per year on the FA market, he needs to be a 2.5 WAR player. That seems like a very smart gamble, no?