Red Sox: Slow free agent market come as no surprise

Boston Red Sox fans are anxiously awaiting a splashy free agent signing but a slow moving market isn’t all that surprising.

With Christmas almost upon us, Boston Red Sox fans have been peeking under the tree and wondering why there are no free agents gift wrapped and waiting for them.

We are deep into the offseason calendar yet the front office has done little beyond re-signing incumbent first baseman Mitch Moreland to a team-friendly deal. Just because it was a smart move doesn’t mean it will generate much excitement, so the transaction was met with a yawn followed quickly by an outcry demanding more.

The lack of movement by the Red Sox in response to the activity from their fiercest rival residing 200 miles south in the Bronx has left fans frustrated. While it’s not uncommon for a passionate fan base to feel anxious about how the roster will shape up, the backlash against Dave Dombrowski has been baffling.

This year’s free agent market has been unusually slow and we can’t pin the blame for that on Dombrowski. Players and their agents have a significant role in dictating the pace of the market, so no matter what the Red Sox do they can’t force a player to sign until they are ready.

Going this long without making a splash hardly means the offseason has been lost, thus Dombrowski can’t be deemed a failure. The time will come to judge Boston’s brass but that time has not come yet.

The Red Sox roster is set at most positions but they entered the offseason with a clear need for a power bat to anchor the lineup. Their farm system lacks enough desirable chips to find a suitable solution on the trade market so free agency is the course they must travel. One prime free agent bat stands out among the rest, making J.D. Martinez an obvious top target. Last I checked, Martinez remains unsigned. If Dombrowski has zeroed in on Martinez then how can we call him a failure if his target is still available?

The pessimistic fan will argue that if Martinez is such an obvious solution then Dombrowski should be backing up the Brinks truck to get him. This wouldn’t be smart business. Breaking the bank for a free agent simply because they happen to be the best available at the time is how the Red Sox ended up with Carl Crawford and Pablo Sandoval. We can assume that Dombrowski wants Martinez but he also wants to sign him to a contract where he’ll return decent value.

Super-agent Scott Boras holds the key to free agency as the representative for Martinez and Eric Hosmer, who are considered to be the top two hitters on the market. Boras is naturally asking for far too much money and too many years for his clients. Dombrowski has wisely waited out the market with the knowledge that the price tag will drop to a more palatable level when no other teams are willing to cave into Boras’ demands.