The Red Sox have chosen to take the club option on Marco Scutaro for 2012. There was a club option for 6 million dollars and a player option of 3 million dollars. Given that Scut had one of his best years last year, the Sox were smart to take his option since if he became a free agent, I imagine a few teams would take a good look at him and possibly offer him multiple years. Since Iglesias isn’t ready to be a full time major league short stop yet and Lowrie hasn’t been able to stay healthy for a whole year yet, this seems like a smart smart move.
The only other player with an option left is Dan Wheeler. I’d be surprised if they took his option, but we’ll see.
8 Sox players have filed for free agency: Erik Bedard, J.D. Drew, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon, Trever Miller, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield and Conor Jackson. The Sox have until Thursday to negotiate exclusively with them before other clubs can get involved. I am sure the Sox are gonna focus first and foremost on Papi and Pap. I also imagine those are the only two that the Sox are going to offer arbitration to. Pap is definitely going to test the free agency waters. Heck, he’s been talking about it for years and can’t imagine the Sox could lock him up before he looked around. As for Papi, it depends on what he gets offered. I get the feeling he wants to come back if the Sox are willing to give him something close to what he thinks he is worth.
I guess the Hot Stove Season is officially upon us, eh?
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