Expiring contracts

After the 2007 season, several contracts will have expired, freeing up some cash for the Red Sox. The Sox current payroll is $143,026,214. I think that Henry and Company would be willing to pump the payroll up to around $150 million, but not much further. I base that on their willingness to pursue Clemens. The contracts that are expiring this year are:

Curt Schilling - $13 million
Matt Clement - $9.5 million
Mike Lowell - $9 million
Eric Hinske - $5.625 million
Joel Piniero - $4 million

That means the Red Sox will have about $41 million dollars to work with. Add on the extra money they are probably willing to spend, I say Theo will have about $50 million to work with this off-season. My guess, however, is not much of that money is spent. Looking at the 5 big loses you see one injured old pitcher, one pitcher that has hardly pitched the past 2 years, a starting 3rd baseman, a utility man, and a 6th inning reliever. Basically, only Schilling and Lowell need to be replace.

Clement has been a complete non-factor on this team. He has no spot to be replaced. Eric Hinske is a nice bat to have coming off the bench, but a David Murphy or Brandon Moss could do the same thing at a league minimum. Joel Piniero is a nice like reliever. He has his days were he is great and his days were he is worthless. By no means is he irreplaceable. I would love if Craig Breslow would replace him today. Once again, would probably we pitching for a league minimum. Those 3 players are making close to $20 million this year. Their replacements could easily be in the range of $1-2 million.

Schilling and Lowell are going to be harder to replace. Their are no internal options to play 3rd. The only player that can is currently manning 1st, Youkilis. To be blunt, there are no options in free agency either. Adam Dunn may have his contract opted out of and A-Rod may opt out himself, but i don't see the Sox as a major player in either of those players. More likely than not, Lowell will get a new contract. I think a 2 year $20 million contract would be great. It all depend on what Lowell wants. I'm sure he could get a better deal, but hopefully the allure of playing in Boston for a contender will help out the cause.

Schilling is interesting. He has said he wants to come back to Boston. But with his current injury and the age concerns, i don't know if that's all that great of an idea. He will probably ask for a 1 year deal worth anywhere between $10-15 million. It is too early for me to judge whether i want it or not. If he can come back health and pitch well in October, I'd go for it. I just don't believe that it will happen. The Sox have both Lester and Buchholz waiting in the wings. They would both be nice options, since they are young and cheap. It kind of scares me to have that many young pitchers, however. I'd love to watch a rotation of Dice-K/Beckett/Buchholz/Lester/Wakefield but i just don't know if that's enough. A lot of inexperienced pitchers in that group. The only pitcher older than 28 would be Wake. I'm on the wait and see side with Schilling. If he does walk, i would not be shock if Theo makes a trade for a Dontrell Willis type player to round out the rotation.

The Red Sox have money to spend, and even more this off-season. I would expect them to sit back this year and let some of these farm hens to strut their stuff, but nothing would surprise me. No matter what happens, expect the team to look different next year.