Over the next couple of days I am going to go over where the Sox players stand. Later I will go over possible moves, and what I think may happen. Special thanks to the Globe/Herald for the updates on the players' contract status.
Starting Pitchers:
Josh Beckett
Becket is signed through next season the Red Sox hold a club option for 2010. Next year he will be making 10.5 million, and the option (which they will almost certainly pick up) is worth 12 million. Beckett had a tough season, and he needs to get healthy, but what people forget is that he came into this season out of shape. I would hope next season he would learn from his mistakes. DP also made a good point, it seems like this guy has a good season every other year. I would expect that if he is to have a good year next year (which I think he will), that the Sox will sign him to an extension, probably 4-5 years in length.
Jon Lester
Best lefty in the AL, and the Sox have him tied up for very low money through 2012 (Awesome). Though I expect if he has another great year, that they will give him a contract to keep him happy. This kid has the determination, and stuff to be a great pitcher for the next 10 years. He doesn't seem to be injury prone, and looks like a guy that will be able to eat up innings. The best part is that he is a lefty, and great lefties are hard to find. Overall, Lester will be a Red Sox for a very long time.
Daisuke Matsuzaka
The Sox have signed through 2012 for about 9 million a year. Not a bad deal for the Sox at all. Dice-K had a great year record wise, but I think everyone can agree that they would like to see him let up more hits, if it meant he could extend his outings into the 7th inning (he just tries to be too perfect). Overall you can't complain about his season, and we saw a lot of growth out of him since 2007. So, hopefully that means he will be even better next season. If he could find a way to limit his pitches every inning this could be a guy that could throw a lot of complete games, as he is able to throw 120-130 pitches a game.
Tim Wakefield
As of right now the Wake is a free agent. The Sox hold a club option for next year worth about 4 million. I see them picking it up, since he still eats up innings, and he is a team leader. The only thing with Wakefield is that you need to have a starter behind him, because at some point in the season his back will act up, but for 4 million that's still a good deal.
Curt Schilling
Basically ripped the Sox off for 8 million, but whatever he got us two rings, and he is now gone. Most reports say that he will retire, but I expect that he will pull a Clemens and come back half way through a season. It will not be in a Sox uniform, and I would think most likely it will be to a NL team.
Paul Byrd
He is a free agent, and most likely he will not be back. I think the Sox are going to go after another pitcher, or try Clay Buchholz or Michael Bowden in the rotation. Still there is a part of me that thinks they could use a 5th starter that is durable and can eat up innings. Only problem is I don't like a guy who lets up a lot of hits, because at Fenway a lot of hits can be a lot of HRs very quickly.
Clay Buchholz
He is tied up much like Lester. Clay had a tough year, and I actually blame some of that on the Red Sox. They played with this kid too much, changing his arm angle, and pitches. I am starting to wonder if he can take the pressure of playing in Boston, and I have been hearing rumors of the Red Sox talking to the Rangers for a possible deal that would include Buchholz for one of their stud catching prospects. I will get more into that in a later post about possible deals.
-BMack
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