Larry Lucchino

Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino rebutted claims that his team is scaling back its spending this offseason, saying in multiple settings that his team plays on blowing past the $178 million luxury tax payroll and suggesting that the Sox will exceed the $189 million franchise payroll record, which was set last season.

In an appearance on Sirius/XM MLB Network Radio’s “Inside Pitch,” Lucchino painted a picture of a far-reaching commitment by team owners to the payroll, both over the duration of the group’s tenure (which began in 2002) and in 2012.

“Look at what we’ve done and not what we say. Since we have been here — we are now beginning our 11th year — our payroll has consistently been at the top end of Major League Baseball,” said Lucchino. “It has not been No. 1. That position has been reserved, probably permanently, for the New York Yankees, but it has been second most every year, and we have invested lots of money in amateur draft picks. We sign our draft picks at a much higher percentage than used to be the case. We’ve invested in international signings — you can look at some of our Cuban players and some of our Japanese players — and so we have invested dollars into this franchise because we recognize that the fundamental question about a franchise and about its ownership is, is there a commitment to winning. I think that our track record demonstrates that there is that commitment.

“Now, this year, if you want to talk specifically about 2012, we will have the highest payroll in the history of the Boston Red Sox in 2012,” Lucchino continued. “Will we eclipse the luxury tax threshold? To be sure, we will — once again. So I think the talk of us not spending needs to be viewed in the context of real facts and in comparisons to real dollars.”

In earlier comments to MLB.com, Lucchino also disputed the notion that the Red Sox’ spending has been impacted by the Fenway Sports Group’s ownership of the Liverpool Football Club.

“That has not been the case,” Lucchino said of the idea that the Red Sox ownership group was channeling its resources towards soccer players. “There has not been a situation where that was cited for a reason for us not to do something here.”

Asked for how he feels when his team is characterized as being “cheap,” Lucchino suggested amusement.

“It makes me laugh. It just proves the old adage that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. You certainly can’t please all of the sportswriters much of the time. But that’s OK,” said Lucchino. “What’s important to us is that our fans realize that we are in this to win it, and we operate accordingly.

“Are there financial constraints from time to time? Of course there are. No one has an unlimited budget to do absolutely everything they want to do. But with some common-sense parameters, as I said, we’re going to have the highest payroll in the history of the Boston Red Sox this year, and the commitment to winning from the very highest levels — John Henry, Tom Werner — throughout the entire organization, there is a powerful sense of obligation that our job is to commit to win, provide our fans with entertaining, competitive, winning baseball.”

(For a detailed look at the Red Sox payroll, click here.)

Lucchino also touched on a number of additional topics. Among them: Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox nearly dealt for A's starter Rich Harden just before the trade deadline. (AP)

According to MLB Network and NESN analyst Peter Gammons (via twitter), right-hander Rich Harden underwent season-ending surgery to repair his right shoulder. Gammons tweeted: After 5 years of ‘always being hurt’ with a torn capsule, Rich Harden last week had surgery, aiming to come back in 2013–healthy. Finally.

The development offered a reminder of the trade to which the Red Sox and Athletics agreed on July 30 (one day before last year’s trade deadline) only to have the Sox call off the deal upon reviewing Harden’s medical records. The deal would have sent Harden to the Sox for first baseman Lars Anderson and a player to be named (both Raul Alcantara and Brandon Workman were on a list of players from which the A’s could select a player).

Harden, who turned 30 following the season, was 2-1 with a 4.30 ERA, 30 strikeouts and 10 walks in 29 1/3 innings at the time of the almost-trade. Though the Sox thought that he was unlikely to make more than a handful of starts down the stretch, Harden remained healthy enough to make 10 starts over the final two months of the season, albeit with mixed results. He struck out an impressive 61 batters (and walked 21) in 53 1/3 innings, but went just 2-3 with a 5.57 ERA while averaging 5 1/3 innings per start.

Erik Bedard, the pitcher whom the Sox ended up adding after missing out on Harden, struggled with injury issues of his own with the Sox. The left-hander made eight starts and pitched just 38 innings, going 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA while striking out 38 and walking 18.

While the Red Sox have remained open to the idea of adding depth to their rotation, according to a major league source, the team had not explored the possibility of signing Harden this offseason.

According to a team source, the Red Sox have hired Gary Hughes as a professional baseball scouting consultant. Hughes carries a reputation as a top evaluator, someone with great experience and contacts in the game.

Hughes has more than four decades of experience as a scout and front office member. Baseball America named him one of the top 10 scouts of the 20th century. Hughes worked for nine years in the Cubs front office before resigning his post as special assistant last September after the firing of former Chicago GM Jim Hendry.

The Red Sox are unlikely to sign free agent starter Roy Oswalt. (AP)

WORCESTER — The Red Sox have been engaged in talks with any number of free agents throughout the offseason, and according to a team source, the team continues to talk to pitchers Roy Oswalt and Edwin Jackson. That said, Sox GM Ben Cherington said that he does not expect the team to add either pitcher in the coming days.

“We wouldn’t rule out adding a starter, but I think it’s unlikely at this point,” said Cherington. “I think we’re going to keep looking for ways to improve the team, including the pitching staff, but I wouldn’t expect any major changes between now and the [spring training] report date.”

Cherington is comfortable with that approach. While there are parts of the roster that remain undefined, and several jobs (the last two spots of the rotation, the division of labor at shortstop and right field, the roles in the bullpen) will be subject to spring training competitions, the Sox GM feels that his team is in good shape with the reporting date for pitchers and catchers now less than three weeks away.

“There’s elements we feel really good about and elements that we’d like to be stronger, just like any year,” said Cherington. “We think the lineup is, we hope, a pretty balanced lineup. We think we have some options with the bullpen. That can be a strength. We like the front of the rotation. We’re going to find out more about the end of the rotation in spring training and see which guys step up. That will be a big focus of spring training.” Read the rest of this entry »

A year ago, the sense was undeniable. The Red Sox were going through the motions in spring training.

The roster was all but set prior to the first pitch of spring training. At the margins, there were a couple of small questions, chiefly related to the 12th pitcher on the staff to break camp at the start of the season (the big winner having been…Dennys Reyes, whose addition to the roster cost the Sox a bit more than $900,000 for a pitcher who gave up three runs in 1 2/3 innings spanning four appearances). But otherwise, the Red Sox approached the spring like a group that had answered nearly all of its roster questions prior to the start of the regular season. That doesn’t mean that members of the team failed to work hard or purposefully, but work behind the scenes is different from a dogfight for a roster spot or role.

And so, when the team got off to one of the worst starts in franchise history, losing its first six games and then going 2-12, that lackluster spring training was blamed by some for the team’s flat-footed beginning of 2011 — a start that, of course, proved costly given that the Sox missed the postseason by one game.

This year, the Sox will take a different approach. There will be a host of positions that are awaiting definition, with the team having open competitions for playing time.

The Sox will have Daniel Bard, Alfredo Aceves, Vicente Padilla, Aaron Cook, Andrew Miller, Felix Doubront and Carlos Silva (among others) competing for the last two spots in the starting rotation. The team will have Mike Aviles and Nick Punto trying to assert themselves as primary shortstop options. In the outfield, Cody Ross and Ryan Sweeney will have the chance to lay claim to a role as the team’s primary right fielder (once Carl Crawford returns from his injury). Spots will also be up for grabs in the bullpen, where the pitchers in the rotation competition will join others such as Michael Bowden, Matt Albers and Franklin Morales in a scrum for the final spots.

“We like [competition] for spring training. We’ve had years where we haven’t had a ton of competition for the team. Some level of competition is healthy and it gives [manager Bobby Valentine] and the staff a chance to evaluate players when they’re in a little bit more of a legitimate setting,” said Sox GM Ben Cherington. “Spring training isn’t the best time to evaluate players, but when guys are trying to win a job, you’re seeing a version of them that’s closer to the real thing.

“We think there’s some benefit to having a team that’s not just going through spring training getting ready for Opening Day, but going through spring training with a purpose and something at stake. We’ll have that this spring.”

Valentine is mindful of the fact that it is difficult to hold legitimate and meaningful competitions in the spring. At the same time, he did note that there is value to the idea of having players working to win unsettled roster spots.

“I wish that the roster was extended through April so we could have real competition under the lights,” said Valentine. “I think it’s a misleading situation if they just think they’re competing on results. I don’t believe so much in results, but what we see and what there is, that’s how we’ll judge the competition. …

“[But] I think it’s always good for guys to feel like they have a chance to work and to make the team so that they work a little harder, because the more you work and practice, the better foundation you have to last the entire season.”

That, of course, is precisely where the 2012 Red Sox are looking to improve in comparison with their 2011 predecessor, a team that was as good as any team in baseball from May through August but whose season was sabotaged by its struggles at the beginning and end of the year.

John Lackey (AP)

The trade of Marco Scutaro unexpectedly freed up more payroll for luxury tax purposes than expected, as the shortstop’s $6 million salary in 2012 would have represented a $7.67 million payroll hit for luxury tax purposes. (More on that here.) Yet in another way, the Sox have slightly less flexibility than anticipated.

It had been assumed that John Lackey had given the team a couple million dollars in additional payroll flexibility with the news that Tommy John surgery that will cost him all of the 2012 season. That is because his absence for the season in turn gives the team an option on his services at the major league minimum for the 2015 season, thus seemingly turning his contract from a five-year, $82.5 million ($16.5 million AAV) contract to a six-year, $83 million contract ($13.83 million AAV).

However, that conclusion was based on a premature push of the fast-forward button. Lackey’s contract remains a five-year, $82.5 million deal. There was a conditional club option for the 2015 season that, if he missed an entire year with a preexisting elbow condition, he would pitch in 2015 for the major league minimum. That is now a club option (rather than a conditional one), rather than a guaranteed season. As such, it does not alter how Lackey’s contract impacts the team’s payroll in 2012. He still represents $16.5 million in salary against the luxury tax threshold in 2012.

That now out of the way, here’s a look at the Red Sox’ current payroll commitments, in a year when the Red Sox appear to be budgeting for somewhere in the vicinity of $185 million to $190 million (a number that will exceed the luxury tax threshold of $178 million): Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington (AP)

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, in an interview on The Big Show, said that the Red Sox face a budget but not a mandate to stay under the $178 million luxury tax threshold for 2012, explained the rationale for the trade of Marco Scutaro to the Rockies and suggested that, while the Sox are exploring options (including starting pitching options) to reinforce their roster, that he is comfortable with where the team stands with its pitching.

Cherington suggested that the team is weighing whether there is more to be gained by using their available resources to sign players now or whether the team might be better served to maintain financial flexibility for potential deals either during spring training or leading up to the trade deadline.

“We would be content going [into spring training] with the pitching staff we have right now. Again, any decision you make, when it comes to acquiring a player, whether a free agent or a trade, there’s that decision and then there’s the opportunity cost of doing that. There’s something, by doing that, that you may not be able to do. Those are the things we weigh,” said Cherington. “If there’s something that helps the team now, that we think makes sense and is the right value, then we’ll do that. If not, we’ll keep our doors open, remain flexible and consider things during spring training and during the year.

“Teams evolve,” he continued. “Teams very seldom look the same way in July or at the end of the year that they do in spring training. In large part, that’s because baseball is such a difficult sport. It’s such a grind, it’s such a long season. It’s hard to predict exactly what you’re going to need. It’s hard to predict how players are going to react or respond. Sometimes flexibility can be a good thing.

“The Cardinals, in spring training last year, were getting beat up because they hadn’t extended Pujols and they lost Wainwright in spring training. Things worked out pretty well. That’s not to suggest it’s always going to happen that way, but things change a lot in baseball. We need to stay nimble and be prepared to react to things that we think make sense. If that’s next week, then it’s next week. If it’s a month from now, then it’s a month from now. If it’s July, then it’s July. We’ll just take every opportunity as it comes.”

As for reports that the Sox have made a contract offer to Roy Oswalt (and reportedly have also made an offer to Edwin Jackson), Cherington spoke in generalities.

“There’s a lot out there. If we acquired every player we are rumored to be on, we’d need, like, an 80-man roster. I’d never comment on a negotiation, specifically,” said Cherington. “We’re talking to a few different guys, we’re considering different things. If there’s a way to make our team better, whether it’s the rotation of the pitching staff or whether it’s another part of the team between now and spring training, we’ll do that.

“We don’t feel like we need to do that. We feel like we’re in a good position. If spring training started today, we like the mix that we have and we’ll have plenty of contenders for the end of the rotation and the last couple bullpen spots.”

To listen to the compete interview, visit The Big Show audio on demand page. Here is a transcript of other highlights of the interview:

Are the Red Sox under orders to stay under the luxury tax threshold of $178 million in 2012? Read the rest of this entry »