Sunday Discussion: Lifelong Sox

With Lester and Pedroia being among the best at their positions, and with our payroll the way it is right now, I’m not sure we can hold onto them.

not only is he an incredibly talented player, but he is homegrown and Boston showed a ton of faith in him when everyone else in baseball saw a guy that was too small to be a big league player. He has the work ethic to be an elite player for a long time and Boston should be aggressive in getting him to sign another extension. His next deal doesn’t need to be a particularly team friendly one, but I would hope that he recognizes the special place he holds in Boston and makes staying here a priority. Boston should also see his value both on the field and as the face of the franchise and pay him accordingly. Sox fans might hate the comparison, but it is still true; Pedroia is our Derek Jeter.

But I think of those guys, Pedroia will have the longest career and will be with the Sox through it

The Great Yaz tenure will be hard to top.

He’s signed for a while, he’s left handed, very good and seems to be past injury concerns (though you never know with pitchers). I think it’s more likely the Sox hold on to him through his age 38 (or whatever) season just based on position (and quality).

Second basemen and relievers don’t generally have long careers so the odds are against Pedroia and Bard (who is a reliever until further notice). We all agree that sadly Ellsbury probably isn’t long for Boston, and Buchholz is a 27 year old pitcher who has topped 100 innings at the major league level in a season once. It’s gotta be Lester. Though if given the option I’d bet against anyone doing it. 17 years is a crazy long time.

but I think people are being way too negative about Ellsbury, he’ll likely regress, and we’ll probably keep him

But, I don’t think any one of these guys will. Pedey would be my second guess, but it comes down to, between those two guys, which one is more likely to be a major league player at age 39? It seems to me that pitchers generally last a little longer so that’s why I went that way. I don’t think Bard will, largely because he was 24 when he broke into the league, so we’d be looking at his age 41 season and Boston seems like it doesn’t care much about retaining it’s relievers and rightfully so. Ellsbury we’re looking at a Boras client and at his age 40 year, let’s remember that Mike Camera retired today, his last game he was 38 years old.

is if we draft someone like Strasburg or Justin Upton who comes up the the bigs around 20 or so, then sign him to a Tulo-style deal later on.

Unfortunately, getting someone like Upton won’t happen under the new CBA, with the slotting system there’s no real strategy to the draft other than pour all your money into scouting.

I don’t see any of these guys lasting 17 years, but if only one of them can, I hope it’s Pedroia.

But I don’t realistically think anyone will match 17 years on the team.

However I think Iglesias could have a shot (if he learns how to hit sooner than later).