If Fraley, a reporter with some local knowledge, thinks 3/$75-80M would get it done, then the Phillies are not alone. The Red Sox, Mariners and others are also working with him at that level. As a potential DH in a few years, he would be better off in the American League.

It will take more than a 3 year contract to sign him because I think the Rangers will match any 3-year offer.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why the red sox would pay J D Drew the amount they did but won’t take a chance on Josh Hamilton. Lets let all the top free agents go to Philly and L A.

Per Ken Rosenthal the Red Sox are in “serious” discussions with Dempster and continue discussions on Sanchez, Lohse, Liriano, and Marcum.

Serious? that seems to be a joke right now, if they are or were serious we would have Lohse or Dempster a week or two ago, this is just pr hacks spewing out the company line.

I understand the skepticism, but if you step back and take off the Red Sox fan hat, you’ll see that none of the big free agent starting pitchers have signed other than Greinke.  The obvious reason is that they all were waiting to see where Greinke went.

I think you’ll see Dempster, Lohse, Sanchez, and Marcum to sign before Christmas.  All other pitchers like Liriano will have to either wait till these guys are off the market, or they sign 1-year deals hoping to recover some value. 

Personally I’d prefer Sanchez over all the others as he is the only one on the right side of 30.  But I think his market is going to be Lackey, Burnett money.  If Greinke signed for $140MM, he can make the argument he is worth at least $75M.  Someone will agree with him.  I just hope it’s not the Red Sox.