Baseball’s super-agent, Scott Boras, thinks the Red Sox can contend in 2013, despite finishing in last place in the AL East in 2012. All they have to do is want to spend money — especially if it’s on Boras’ clients.
Only part of that has been editorialized — and it’s not hard to figure out which part — but Boras does think that the Red Sox aren’t far off from being a contender, as early as 2013.
“When you make a trade like that, and you give up a core, middle-of-the-lineup player [like Adrian Gonzalez], to replace those numbers and the defense that goes with it, it’s a very difficult process unless you’re going to participate in free agency,” Boras told FOXSports.com. “If you go to free agency, you’re normally going to find a player or so annually, or in the next year, to do that.”
The trade Boras is referring to, of course, is the August megadeal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Sox cleared up $250 million of payroll in ridding themselves of the burdensome contracts of Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.
In doing so, Boston has obviously hurt itself in terms of talent, but the new found money certainly lets general manager Ben Cherington and the Red Sox front office get creative this winter (or next) if they so choose. It makes a financially powerful team all that more powerful.
“The great thing about [the Red Sox] is they are one of the goliaths of the game, revenue-wise,” Boras continued. “It’s really not a question of if they can. It’s a question of choice. I don’t think anyone in baseball thinks the Red Sox don’t have the ability to compete in the free-agent market.”
Of course, anything Boras — or any other agent — says must be taken with a grain of salt. Especially when you consider that one of Boras’ clients, Jacoby Ellsbury, is set to become a free agent after this season. So while Boras may truly think that the Red Sox are able to contend, he may also be  putting more public pressure on the Sox to pony up and pay Ellsbury — or anyone else on Boras’ star-studded client list.
