Financial Flexibility Paramount for Red Sox

Hiroki Kuroda is a Yankee. Edwin Jackson will be pitching in the nation’s capital. Mark Buehrle took his reliability to South Beach. The north side of Chicago will serve as Paul Maholm‘s new home. Roy Oswalt prefers the prairie to 4 Yawkey Way. Virtually every pitcher who the Red Sox either targeted or were rumored to have had interest in this offseason has signed on with a different franchise or is waiting for a better option to open elsewhere. No big names. No marquee additions. Just a handful of crumpled lottery tickets.

And the front office of the Boston Red Sox is perfectly fine with that.

Heading into Spring Training this year, the feeling of uncertainty around the Old Towne Team is tangible. No longer are they the team to beat. Instead, they are the team who gets beat. Five times in the final week and a half of the season. By the Baltimore Orioles. The feeling around this team has changed considerably in the matter of twelve months.

The 2011 Red Sox roster was like a brand new, move-in ready home located in the affluent section of town. Sure, it cost top dollar, but every room was in pristine shape. They had spent up to their budget, and there was not a ton of mobility for improvement. What you saw was what you got. This year, however, the Sox still live in the same well-to-do neck of the woods, but they’ve moved to a new place and saved a few dollars in the process. Their new home needs some renovations, but it has the potential to look quite good. Because the Sox chose not to exceed, or even spend up to, its budget, there is some wiggle room to upgrade certain areas of the house after they move in, after they have a sense of exactly what the home needs.

This is the philosophy that GM Ben Cherington and the rest of the Red Sox brass has adopted. They cast out a couple of lines towards Jackson and Oswalt. If either of them bit, it was going to be at the price that the Sox set. Jackson and his agent Scott Boras opted to sign with the upstart Nationals, allowing the well-traveled righty to play in the pitcher-friendly National League. Oswalt is stuck somewhere in between Texas and Missouri. The Red Sox didn’t lose out on these free agents because of cheapness. There were other mitigating factors at play, like the offensive prowess that exists in the AL East and simple geography.

This doesn’t get Cherington off the hook completely, however.

Marco Scutaro, one of the more unlikely candidates to be traded this offseason, was shown the door in a move that can only be described as a salary dump. For luxury tax purposes, Cherington effectively vacated roughly $8MM with Scutaro’s departure to the Rockies. Cody Ross inked a one-year deal worth $3MM during the offseason, leaving the Red Sox with around $5MM in luxury tax dollars to spend. I’m not an accountant, but these are round figures that exist. Here is the point: The Red Sox have some money to spend. I’m not saying that Cherington does not have a chance of netting Oswalt between now and Opening Day, but it is extremely unlikely.

Therefore, the next viable point when the Sox could utilize their financial flexibility is at the end of July. I see no reason why the Red Sox will not be firmly entrenched in a division title race when the trade deadline comes. At that time, the Red Sox will have formed an identity, for better or worse. Cherington’s job will be to add a piece or two that proves instrumental in the success of the team down the stretch and, hopefully, into the playoffs. The Boston Herald’s Scott Lauber agrees. “By standing pat now, they [Red Sox] also may maintain financial flexibility to deal for a starter before the July 31 trade deadline.”

Last season, the Red Sox acquired the oft-injured Erik Bedard at the trade deadline. He simply did not provide enough juice to a rotation that was limping along. By not putting a full-court press on to acquire a quality starting pitcher this offseason, Cherington made his point extremely clear. The team is best served by attempting to add a quality piece at the trade deadline rather than before the season.

Scutaro was the sacrificial lamb. It will be Cherington’s job to ensure that his departure was not in vain.

His deadline is 4 p.m on July 31.

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