Comments on: UPDATE: Mike Napoli, Red Sox reach a one-year deal — for only $5 million!

By: theskinsman

theskinsman — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:51:03 +0000

uyf, I must invoke the ‘yanks overpay so much for a-fraud you just can’t make any Sox overpaid for anyone’ comment rule. It’s unseemly. And now the much dumped on Boston front office scores after a loooong dry spell.

By: tfbuckfutter

tfbuckfutter — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:16:56 +0000

Didn’t Gomes get the same base dollar amount at Napoli?

Now that signing looks even dumber.

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:09:36 +0000

Jody Reed used to be the standard. Can anyone remember the details?

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:05:46 +0000

I don’t think there’s anything to wonder about. His hip is in terrible shape. I don’t see any reason to believe that he’ll play more than, say, 60 games this year.

If he were even slightly healthy, he would have looked for a deal elsewhere. This is the best he could do. And meanwhile, the Red Sox have to hope — against all logic — that they didn’t just throw about $5 million

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:53:11 +0000

True, but we still have “overpaid for Victorino” and “overpaid for Gomes” lines this winter.

By: tfbuckfutter

tfbuckfutter — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:31:01 +0000

My excitement for the upcoming season just jumped from “apathy” to “still apathy but getting ever so much closer to ambivalence.”

Top 10 Draft Pick Here We Come.

(One more free agent signing like this and that period up there….well that may become an exclamation point)

By: nolanwiffle

nolanwiffle — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:53:18 +0000

Further proof that the vast majority of Yankees fans are not baseball fans, they’re just……………. Yankees fans.

By: beefytrout

beefytrout — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:04:35 +0000

you’re right, I forgot that.

By: suziecue59

suziecue59 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:01:05 +0000

Rangers didn’t make him a qualifying offer!!

By: bostonboy82

bostonboy82 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:41:22 +0000

Hmmmm. There go all your “overpaid for Napoli lines”.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:22:53 +0000

Unless Napoli’s hip is really, really bad I just don’t understand him settling for $5MM guaranteed. I wonder how easy or difficult the incentive levels will be to reach. Very surprised Napoli signed off on this type of deal.

By: paint771

paint771 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:48:01 +0000

It sounds like Napoli may have even gotten more spooked than the Red Sox, or incredibly limited himself in the negotiation. Because I would imagine that if he would have auctioned this baseline on the open market that there would have been plenty of teams willing to bid it up a big, going say $6 guaranteed, 12 with incentives, do I hear 6.5/13, etc. I wonder how he got boxed into such a corner with one team?

By: beefytrout

beefytrout — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:39:01 +0000

Wow, I think Mike Napoli may now be the most extreme example of how free agency can go wrong.

After 2011, the Rangers wanted to lock him up for a few years. Napoli said, nah, I can definitely do better when I hit the open market after 2012. Then he had a pretty crappy 2012 season, and somehow actually did do better when he hit the open market, after turning down the Rangers qualifying offer of $13m.

Now this. Ouch.

By: Jason @ IIATMS

Jason @ IIATMS — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:27:45 +0000

that’s only, what, ~$23M less than fellow gimpy-hip-hipster ARod will make.

By: unlost1

unlost1 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:49:55 +0000

WOW that’s so low, none of us would accept that! (DUH – it’s 5 million for having fun PART of the year)

By: hammyofdoom

hammyofdoom — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:47:42 +0000

To me this deal being brought all the way down to 1 for 5 means that at some point in his near future Napoli is probably going to need hip replacement surgery. The only thing I can see spooking the Red Sox this much on a player that they wanted this badly would to see that it is essentially bone-on-bone in that hip. I’d be curious to see what the actual issue is, but I can’t imagine it’s something not pretty serious

By: dwrek5

dwrek5 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:43:02 +0000

Come on Timmy, just one more home run!!! #399

By: sargespeak

sargespeak — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:17:00 +0000

Tim Salmon to the rescue!

By: mrfloydpink

mrfloydpink — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:01:50 +0000

Wow, the Red Sox are building a full stable of broken down former Angels. Perhaps they can sign Vlad Guerrero to go along with Napoli and John Lackey.

By: crispybasil

crispybasil — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:45:06 +0000

Interesting that the one-year deal would be for less than $13 million. I wonder just how bad his hip looked during that physical.

By: jarathen

jarathen — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:36:16 +0000

Mike Napoli strikes me as one of those cases where I wonder how a career would have gone with a manager more appreciate of a player’s given skillset.

What kind of career would he have if he’d had the chance he was given in Texas during his time in Anaheim?

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:31:17 +0000

I guess sometime within the next 24 hours if not sooner we all should find out the details of this long awaited deal. Fans across the baseball world have been sitting on the edge of their seats while the final scene of this soap opera draws to a conclusion.