Sox land the beast from the East!!!

Welcome to Boston Daisuke!!!

The Sox landed what could be their franchise player. In the process, they also defeated the mighty Scott Boras. That’s almost as satisfying as landing Matsuzaka.

DOWN GOES BORAS! DOWN GOES BORAS!

The Sox front office was masterful in their negotiations. They held their ground and stuck with their original offer. Boras, the baseball anti-christ, played his only hand which was to not negotiate and to threaten to bring his client back to Japan. However, Seibu was in financial trouble and supposedly told Matsuzaka they would not be posting him in 2007, effectively making him wait two more seasons to be a free agent. Add in the pressure of family, friends, and fans back home, it was probably an easy choice for Matsuzaka. Whether he told Boras to make the deal is something we’ll never know, but it’s most likely what transpired.

Will he be the top of rotation guy here like he was in Japan? To take a page from Parcells, let’s not anoint him just yet. However, all the scouting reports are more than glowing, and Craig Shipley (Sox scout) watched him pitch every game last season. The fact that they were willing to pony up $51M speaks volumes.

It is a gamble, especially since he’s never thrown a pitch in the majors. But you have to figure that a significant part of that posting price will be recovered from new revenue sources. All of Japan will be watching (and buying #18 merchandise) when the season starts. His first pitch in the majors will be against Ichiro, and he will face Matsui a number of times each season. When you factor in the posting price with salary, he’s still less than Jason Schmidt / Mike Mussina money at a little over $17M per year. His annual salary (and luxury tax impact) is only $8.7M, which is less than Gil Meche, Ted Lilly, and even Matt Clement. He’s going to be good in the majors, and he’s still worth the money even if he only becomes your #2 guy. If he meets his incentives, its money well spent and averages only $1.3M per season. So, how much of a gamble are they really taking?

The Sox really pulled this one off. Has the front office redeemed itself? That will be determined on the field, but things look promising.