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Red Sox wouldn’t go to three years on Adam LaRoche 01.08.13 at 2:55 pm ET
By Alex Speier

Free-agent Adam LaRoche agreed to return to the Nationals on a two-year deal on Tuesday (AP)

With Adam LaRoche returning to the Nationals on a two-year, $24 million deal, the most obvious free-agent fallback plan for the Red Sox should talks with Mike Napoli unravel is no longer available. The development does not come as a surprise to the Sox, however.

All winter, LaRoche seemed determined to get a three-year deal if he was to leave the Nats, the team with whom he enjoyed a tremendous year in 2012, hitting .271/.343/.510/.853 with 33 homers and 100 RBI. That appeared to remain the case all winter, even into January. And, according to multiple major league sources, the Sox simply had no intention of committing three years to the 33-year-old LaRoche, particularly given that he would cost the team not just money but also a second-round draft pick. (LaRoche, as a free agent who received a one-year, $13.3 million qualifying offer from the team with whom he spent all of 2012, would have required a draft pick as compensation for the Nationals if he signed with a team other than Washington.)

Early in the offseason, the Sox prioritized Napoli over LaRoche. Napoli wouldn’t cost the Sox a draft pick; at 31, he seemed a slightly safer risk for three years (a notion, however, that may be in some jeopardy given that his agreement remains unresolved due to concerns that emerged when he underwent his physical). And while LaRoche clearly had the stronger 2012 season (Napoli hit .227/.343/.469/.812 with 24 homers in 108 games in 2012), Napoli enjoyed the stronger career marks, with a .259/.356/.507/.863 line, compared to LaRoche’s totals of .268/.338/.482/.820.

And while Napoli and the Sox continue to try to find common ground in the aftermath of the physical, likely altering the original terms of the deal, it would appear that he remained the Sox’ clear priority even with the health concerns that he now presents. In other words, trepidation about the status of talks with Napoli wasn’t going to compel the Sox to reach an agreement with LaRoche on terms that the club deemed undesirable.

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  • Aideblasis

    Not sure what’s taking this deal so long to get done

  • Peter

    either sign napoli or move on. this is getting very boring.

  • Tchuyoyo

    I’ll say this – Cherington is showing a tremendous amount of discipline and patience in reforming this team. He’s not going for the big splash headline that Theo succumbed to.  Cherington takes fan heat for being boring. For not being up for the job. For being a puppet. But frankly, he is being very methodical and I think he knows exactly where’s he’s going. We’ve heard for years now about Theo’s brain trust aided him in a lot of his better moves. Perhaps a lot of the architecture for Theo’s better moves was Ben’s work. If LaRoche wasn’t worth 3 yrs due to their player evaluation engine, then he wasn’t worth 3 yrs. Patience will determine the best outcome with Napoli. The player will blink. He has nowhere else to go with an MRI that kills him. And trades are out there, yet to be made too. There is more to come from Ben. I still think a new #1 or #2 starting pitcher is going to be in the Sox fold for this season. That will be his one big splash. The best pieces are never available early in the off-season – unless you’re dropping big money up front. Ben has collected a lot of surplus pieces he can move. It will probably be in a trade with a team that none of the fans saw coming, for a pitcher in a final year of control, that his current team decides to move for a player haul.

  • RedSox8

    I do not care if Ben or Napoli blinks first. An injury prone player who averages less than 110 games per season and has a hip issue emerge(remember Mike Lowell?) is not worth the risk. A clause to void the contract due to injury would probably not pass muster with the players union, and even if the Sox could get a reduction in salary ala Lackey for a pre-existing medical condition still leaves Napoli on the payroll and the Red Sox going to plan B to find another first baseman. Hope the Sox run as fast as they can from this deal.

  • Esidemnh

    very very boring

  • Capecodrt

    Someone said the teams “player evaluation engine” s decreed that Laroche wasn’t worth the three years.B.S. Who ever is making these decisions is treating this team and town as “Small Market”, another ridiculous phrase as there is no such thing as a small market. You put a winning team on the field and the people come. Just look at Cleveland in the 90′s whebn they were winning. Every night was sold out

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