Jacoby Ellsbury out of Red Sox' price range

Jacoby Ellsbury is well out of the Red Sox' price range according to Peter Gammons, who says that the center fielder is expected to come in around $140 million, well ahead of the $100 million Boston is willing to spend:

Sans Fister, Fielder, Peralta, Tigers can afford Jacoby Ellsbury. Bosox told he's closer to $140M than their $100M range

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) December 3, 2013

This should come as no great surprise. Red Sox fans have long been assuming that their home-grown center fielder would find his way to another team when he was finally eligible for free agency. Even beyond the rifts that may have grown between him and the team over his rib injury back in 2010, there was the simple belief that Ellsbury's talents would be valued more by the league at large than by the Red Sox.

Now it seems like the gap in that valuation is as much as $40 million. If there were any small hopes that the Red Sox, having found the free agent market disappointing, would decide to switch gears and bring back Ellsbury after all, this should likely be enough to put an end to them.

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