Baseball Musings: More on Damon

December 21, 2005

More on Damon

Boston fans are not happy with Damon moving to New York:

It was an ugly start to the day for Laura Cipriano. She awoke at 6 a.m. Wednesday to a call from a New York Yankees-loving friend breaking the news that Johnny Damon had defected to New York.
"She was taunting me," said Cipriano, 30, of South Boston. "She was laughing. She was saying, 'Your favorite Red Sox player is leaving.'"

Both my wife and a colleague at work had the same reaction to the news, "That Bastard!"

What's not clear to me is what kind of premium the Yankees paid to lure Damon from Boston. The last reported offer from the Red Sox was for $40 million for four years. I assume that if the difference between the Yankees offer and the Red Sox offer was relatively small, then Damon would stay in Boston. So my question is, how high were the Red Sox willing to go? If it was only $40 million, then that's a pretty big markup the Yankees are paying to get Johnny to move cities. I'm guessing the Red Sox would go to $48 million. Of course, that means $1 million a year was all it took to sway Damon's loyalty.

Posted by David Pinto at 03:54 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

To me it almost seemed if the Red Sox really didn't want to bring Damon back unless they got him for a steal, which in this market would have been 4 years 40 million. The talks about Damon being their first priority sounded like they were avoiding a media frenzy, which would occur if they showed little to no interest in Damon.

The Red Sox seem to almost be rebuilding in a Big Market fashion. The Jeremy Reed kid could provide them defense, youth, and more flexibility in future offseasons. Whereas 13 million for a 35-36 year old Damon wouldn't. They still have the money to spend but they would rather spend it on extending Ortiz and signing more pitching.

Posted by: David Placzek at December 21, 2005 04:10 PM

Yes! Yes! Yes! Hope the Yankee fans enjoy their overpaid CF :)

Posted by: Jason at December 21, 2005 04:25 PM

Oh, sorry, didn't realize the Damon signing was old news (first time I tuned in to Musings today). Anyway, back to cheering on the Sox: yes, yes, yes, yes! Nice to hear that those claims of the GMs "making all efforts to re-sign Damon" were baloney.

Posted by: Jason at December 21, 2005 04:32 PM

we will be happy to "overpay" him. Better solution than what you currently have.. Jeremy Reed???? Go trade a starting pitcher for him.. LOL.. Red Soxs may finish 3rd this year..

Posted by: Rick at December 21, 2005 04:37 PM

Oh, almost forgot: the Sox get 2 bonus 1st round draft picks for letting Damon "slip" away. Yipee!

Posted by: Jason at December 21, 2005 04:38 PM

Funny, now that Damon signed with the Yankees, all the Sox fans come out of the woodwork overjoyed that he's gone. Wasn't it just yesterday that they were all saying how great he is?

Posted by: sabernar at December 21, 2005 05:08 PM

"Funny, now that Damon signed with the Yankees, all the Sox fans come out of the woodwork overjoyed that he's gone. Wasn't it just yesterday that they were all saying how great he is?"

I'm not sure most people are overjoyed he's gone. It's more like they realize he's not worth what the Yankees paid for him.

He was (at times) great for the Red Sox, but they got him during his peak years. Even then, he was a bit up and down. The Yankees are overpaying for him in his decline years.

Maybe he's one of those guys who don't decline. But considering how he plays--which is part of why he was so popular in Boston, since he's always all-out--I don't think his body will age well.

"Red Soxs may finish 3rd this year."

The Red Sox could finish third, but their offense didn't get much worse losing Damon (assuming they keep Manny) since they improved their 2B offense. And their starting pitching got way better with Beckett. 3B is certainly questionable, with an unknown Lowell or some combination fo Marte and Youkellis.

The Yankees improved their offense, which is exactly where they don't need help. Had they started Bubba Crosby, he could hit .200 and they still might lead the league in runs scored. They didn't need a leadoff hitter--Jeter is already better than Damon in that position--and could have used a better defensive CF than Damon and sacrificed some offense. But they have the money, so why not overpay?

But Damon can't pitch, particularly if Johnson or Moose have age-related declines or injuries.

Posted by: steve at December 21, 2005 05:21 PM

It's fair to say that in the short term, Damon provides a significant upgrade on defense. Yes, his arm is limp pasta. But his range is a MAJOR upgrade from what the Yanks had last year, where CF was like the Billboard Top 100. And his addition to Yanks is furthermore a subtraction from the Sox. The guy did average 114 runs scored for the Sox. Any more than 4 years, and this deal is a real stinker...yet, it may work well for the Yanks.

Posted by: Dave S. at December 21, 2005 07:12 PM

The thing with Damon, at least in the short term, is it allows ARod to move down to the 3 hole, which is where he belongs, not the 2 hole. More RBIs for everyone.

The Sox have as many injury questions on their pitching staff as the Yankees do. Plus their entire infield is a question mark, except for Loretta, but even with him, you don't know which Loretta you're going to get. $13M for 4 years was too much, but considering it took him away from the Sox, I think it was a deal that they had to make.

Posted by: sabernar at December 21, 2005 07:22 PM

Based on what does Mr. Pinto say that the Sox were willing to go to $48 million? I've seen no evidence of that.

Posted by: Hudson at December 21, 2005 09:58 PM

The $48 million is pure speculation on my part. I'm just wondering what kind of counter offer could have kept Damon in Boston. If the Sox were only willing to go to $40 million, why did the Yankees offer $52? If seems to me if the Yankees offered $52, they thought the Red Sox would go much higher than $40.

Posted by: David Pinto at December 21, 2005 10:14 PM

Boras does have a tendency of getting teams to outbid themselves (see Hicks and the Rangers regarding ARod way back when). It's entirely possible he lied about the Pirates offer (I heard on sports talk radio - which of course means it is totally true - that he claimed the Pirates offered a 5 year deal).

I, too, feel the Sox probably weren't too willing to go above $10 million per year. I ran some quick numbers on my site... would you believe, Dave Roberts had an OBP of .356 compared to Damon's .366 last year? Meaning that, in 100 plate appearances, Damon gets on base ONE more time than Roberts.

Would you believe Roberts actually had a better OPS than Damon last year, when factoring in league and park??!!

Interestingly, Roberts only made $1.35 million this past year?

And currently the Sox have a pitcher in a pretty fair contract (David Wells, $4 million per year plus incentives if he stays healthy) who wants to go to San Diego. And the only reason Roberts ever wanted to leave Boston was so he could have a full time role somewhere.

To me, this all adds up to Roberts as our CF next year, and a lot of extra money to spend elsewhere since we saved it by not overpaying for Damon.

Posted by: Mike at December 22, 2005 02:11 AM

Mike: While I agree with you that the Sox have money to spare for next season, what exactly are they going to spend it on? The free agents out there don't inspire much confidence.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at December 22, 2005 03:22 AM

If seems to me if the Yankees offered $52, they thought the Red Sox would go much higher than $40.

The problem with this theory is that Boras never went back to the Sox and say, "Can you come up with a better offer... Or at least something in the ballpark?" He stopped negotiating once they heard $52M from the Yankees.

That's a pretty good indicator that Boras (and Damon) knew the Sox were pretty firm on $40M.

Posted by: Hudson at December 22, 2005 08:16 AM

today at the press conference damon said he had a longer and more lucrative offer on the table but out of respect for that team would not say who it was. the only hint he gave was that "they didnt have the same commitment to winning as the yanks." Any idea who the mystery team could have been? Who doesnt have a CF and has money? baltimore? dodgers (even though they signed k-lo)? nationals? any ideas??

Posted by: tony flynn at December 23, 2005 02:41 PM

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