With the MLB lockout now more than six weeks old, teams can't so much as talk about free agents, much less sign them. The lockout has served to freeze all transactions across the industry.
When a new labor agreement is finally put in place, there will still be nearly 200 or so players looking to find work. Expect a flurry of signings as the rest of the players head for Florida and Arizona.
We don't know what the new economic landscape will look like then. What will the CBT thresholds be? And what will the penalties be like?
So instead of looking ahead, we thought this would be a good time to look backward and come up with lists about past Red Sox free-agent signings.
Under the penurious ownership of Haywood Sullivan and Buddy LeRoux in the mid-to-late 1970s, the Red Sox were not very active in the early era of free agency. While the Yankees spent on big names like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Don Gullet, the Sox went after relievers Bill Campbell and Skip Lockwood.
A lot has changed in the last 45 or so years, of course. Here's a list of the five best and five worst signings by the Red Sox. (Remember, to qualify for this list, a player had to have been a free agent before joining the Red Sox. Thus, Pedro Martinez, who was acquired in a trade before almost immediately signing a huge contract extension, isn't eligible for consideration).
Also, for the purpose of this list, I'm not counting players who were released by other teams and made suddenly available. Thus, no David Ortiz or Tim Wakefield or Luis Tiant, all of whom would otherwise rank at or near the top of any such. Also, we're not including newly-available international free agents, eliminating the likes of Rusney Castillo, Daisuke Matsuzaka and others from consideration.
No, we're talking, good ol' fashioned, six-years-of-service-time, available-in-November, traditional free agents.
Got it?
(Spoiler alert: It proved a lot easier to come up with bad signings than good ones, one more indication of how inefficient the free-agent process is).
THE BEST
1. Manny Ramirez
Contract: Eight years, $160 million (with two option years)
Signed: After the 2001 season
Career in Boston: .312/.411/.588, 274 HR, 868 RBI in 1,083 games
The Red Sox were up for sale the winter Ramirez was signed, meaning the outgoing ownership/administration was spending someone else's money. Perhaps we should have seen how....um...unique Ramirez's time in Boston was going to be when, on the morning he was introduced to the media, he nearly backed out of the deal when he discovered that he couldn't bring the clubhouse manager with him from Cleveland to Boston. What followed were seven and a half seasons in which Ramirez was among the best hitters in the game. There's no denying the numbers. And that was only part of the show -- there was also his indifferent defense, his comical injury excuses, his staged protests and a hundred other quirky anecdotes, too lengthy to chronicle here. By mid-way through his final season, the Red Sox had had enough and shipped him out on in a three-team deal. Mostly because of his production and partly because of the unintentional comedy he provided, the Sox absolutely got their money worth -- including two World Series titles.
2. J.D. Martinez
Contract: five years, $110 million
Signed: Before the 2018 season
Career in Boston: (To date:) .297/.369/.548, 113 homers, 361 RBIs
This one's still in progress, obviously, but we've already seen enough to judge it a success. Martinez has been one of the game's most consistent run producers during his time in Boston -- with the notable exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when someone claiming to be Martinez performed a very poor impersonation of him. But in the three other years, Martinez has provided displayed elite offensive skills. And good as he's been in the regular season (.917), he's been even better (1.005 OPS) in the postseason. It's hard to argue with a stretch that has seen him average 36 homers and 111 RBI in full-length seasons.
3. Johnny Damon
Contract: four years, $31 million
Signed: after the 2001 season
Career in Boston: .295/.362/.441, 98 stolen bases, 461 runs scored
Damon proved to be the spark plug at the top of the Red Sox lineup that they had long needed. He got on base at an amazing clip, was incredible durable (150 or more games played on three of his four seasons), and averaged a stunning 115 runs per season while also providing surprising pop and averaging 36 doubles per season. He was also a better-than-average defender in center -- unless you count the throwing part. And lest we forget, he helped give the Red Sox an identity, helping to christen the team "The Idiots.'' Damon's fun-loving nature was instrumental in creating the proper culture. And if you're still holding a grudge because he signed with the Yankees after 2005, it's well past time to get over it.
4. Bill Mueller
Contract: Three years, $6.7 million
Signed: After the 2002 season.
Career in Boston: .303/.378/.474, 41 homers, 204 RBI in 406 games.
This was an under-the-radar signing at the time, but Mueller won a batting title in 2003 and while he didn't hit for the kind of power usually associated with his position, he got on base at an incredible clip and played a solid third base. You may also remember a certain run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS
5. Koji Uehara
Contract: One year, $4.25 million
Signed: After the 2012 season
Career in Boston: 14-13, 79 saves, 2.19 ERA, 130 games.
Uehara actually spent four seasons with the Red Sox (2013-2016), but we're focusing on the first, one-year deal with them. (He was eligible for salary arbitration after that for 2014, then signed a two-year $18 million extension for his final two years). In 2013, the Uehara was about the fourth option to close for the Sox, but from the time he took over in late May until the end of the World Series, he was magnificent. He finished that year with a 1.09 ERA and a WHIP of 0.565, while saving 21 games. In the postseason, he appeared in 12 games, allowed just one run and saved seven of the Red Sox 11 postseason victories, including the final two in the World Series.
HONORABLE MENTION: Adrian Beltre, Keith Foulke, J.D. Drew
(Getty Images)
THE WORST
1. Pablo Sandoval
Contract: Five years, $95 million
Signed: After the 2014 season
Career in Boston: .237/.286/.360, 14 homers and 59 RBI
The Red Sox had finished last in two of the previous three seasons, and the team was desperate to win back fans. Ownership began placing more emphasis on broadening the team brand and boosting TV ratings, and someone had the idea that a guy with a nickname of "Panda'' might be solution. (Narrator: He was not.) Over the course of two-and-half seasons, Sandoval hugely under-performed and attracted more attention for his girth than his production. Honestly, what's there to say about a player whose two signature moments with the franchise consisted of 1) having his belt buckle explode mid-swing and 2) spending time in the bathroom, mid-game, on Instagram?
2. Carl Crawford
Contract: Seven years, $142 million
Signed: After the 2010 season
Career in Boston: .260/.292/.419, 14 homers and 75 RBI
The incredible thing, in retrospect, was that the Red Sox spent more time and effort in researching Crawford than any free agent in their history. They wanted to know what made him tick, how was he off-the-field...everything about him. And after learning all that, he was still an impossibly bad fit. Crawford never even hinted at being the player in Boston that he had been in Tampa Bay, and the Sox were ecstatic that the Dodgers were willing to take the remainder of his deal off his hands. His signature moment in a Red Sox uniform came when he made a half-ass effort on a sinking liner in Camden Yards during Game No. 162 in 2011.
3. Jose Offerman
Contract: Four years, $26 million
Signed: After the 1998 season
Career in Boston: .268/.359/.384, 30 homers, 186 RBI in 465 games.
The Sox had already lost popular slugger Mo Vaughn to free agency that winter, but when Dan Duquette signed Offerman, he made the colossal blunder of saying that with the arrival of Offerman, the Red Sox had replaced Vaughn's on-base capability. Ugh -- not what the fans wanted to hear, Dan. Offerman had been a solid leadoff hitter with the Royals, and the hope was that he would inject some much-needed speed into the Boston lineup. So, naturally, his stolen base total immediately dipped from 45 in Kansas City to just 18 with the Sox. In fact, over his three and a half seasons with the Sox, he would steal a total of 31. If only that had been his biggest deficiency. That honor goes to his defense, which, at least while playing second base, was brutal.
4. Edgar Renteria
Contract: Four years, $40 million
Signed: After the 2004 season
Career in Boston: .276/.335/.385, eight homers, 70 RBI
After deciding not to retain Orlando Cabrera, who had arrived at the trade deadline and played solidly as the Sox won the World Series, the Sox turned to Renteria, who, ironically, had made the final out for the St. Louis Cardinals two months earlier in the clinching game. It seemed like a smart signing. Renteria was 28, just entering his prime, and only the previous season, had won both the N.L. Gold Glove and Silver Slugger. But it was soon clear that Renteria was not at all cut out for Boston. Smartly, the Sox cut their losses after one season, but the organization continued to make missteps with their free agent shortstop choices -- Julio Lugo would soon be on deck.
5. Mike Torrez
Contract: Seven years, $2.5 million
Signed: After the 1977 season.
Career in Boston: 60-54, 4.51 ERA, 161 games.
Signing Torrez was the Red Sox' first big foray into free agency -- hey, $2.5 million was a lot of money then -- and even better from the Red Sox perspective, they took him away from the Yankees, whom he had helped to win a World Series only a month earlier. His first season with the Sox wasn't bad (16-13, 3.96, 250 IP)....until it got to October, and Torrez allowed a certain homer to a certain light-hitting shortstop. He followed with another 16-win season, but it was all downhill after that and the Sox finally unloaded him to the Mets after five years. Torrez was on hand for Game 6 of the 1986 World Series at Shea Stadium, and when the ball went through the legs of Bill Buckner, Torrez shouted to anyone within earshot: "I'm off the hook!''
HONORABLE MENTION: Matt Young, Matt Clement. Andre Dawson, Jack Clark.