The Dice-K Era Begins in Boston

Thursday was a rather historic day in my co-favorite city, Boston, as my beloved Red Sox announced the signing of Japanese pitching phenom Daisuke (pron. "Dice-K") Matsuzaka. The final price: 6 years and $52 million with incentives that can push the value to $60 million.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061214&content_id=1761085&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

This was but the final step in a rather arduous process which included the initial submission of a $51.1 million bid to his Japanese club, the Seibu Lions, in what effectively was a blind auction to win the exclusive rights to negotiate with Matsuzaka. That's right, the Sox paid $51 million just to talk to the guy and another $52 million to sign him. Welcome to baseball economics in 2006.

Once it was announced that they were the highest bidder, beating out teams such as the Yankees (whoo hoo!), Mets, and Angels, the Sox had 30 days to negotiate a contract with Matsuzaka and his agent, the notorious ball buster Scott Boras. As expected when dealing with Boras, who represents players such as the $250 million man Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and Barry Zito, the negotiations came down to the last couple of days and the two parties were several million dollars per year apart. The Sox initially offered 6 years and $48 million; Boras wanted 6 years and $66 million.

In a rather bold move the Red Sox brass - GM Theo Epstein, president/CEO Larry Lucchino and owner John Henry - flew out to Boras' house in L.A. uninvited to "take the fight" to Boras in terms of the stalling negotiations. The move paid off big time as the entire group along with Boras' client, Matsuzaka, were on Henry's privtae plane back to Boston on Wednesday with a preliminary deal in the bag. All that remained was for Matsuzaka to pass his physical on Wednesday before the Sox rolled out the welcome wagon on Thursday afternoon.

There are some interesting connections here with Matsuzaka and J.D. Drew, another recent Red Sox acquisition and Boras client, as well as the aforementioned former Red Sox Johnny Damon. At one point earlier in the week with the negotiations lagging, Boras stated that he would be more than willing to let the 30 day window expire without a deal and let Matsuzaka return to Japan. The logic being that he could go up for bidding in another year and would be an unresticted free agent in 2008.

As it turned out this was merely a stall tactic as Matsuzaka had no interest in returning to his former club in Japan because: 1) They are near broke and losing the $51.1 million posting fee by him not signing would have devastated them, and 2) He would have lost major face with his adoring fans for not playing in the major leagues. Going back to Japan was not an option.

In 1996 J.D. Drew, represented by Boras, was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. Boras demanded $11 million per year for his rookie client. The Phillies offered $3 million. The two sides never budged and Drew never put on a Phillies uniform, opting instead to play in the independent Northern League for a year before eventually signing with the Cardinals and becoming the scourge of Phillies fans for life. Now Drew, like Matsuzaka, is a new member of the Boston Red Sox.

The difference with this negotiation is that Boras did not have the leverage he did in 1996. No other major league team could negotiate with Matsuzaka, so Boras’ hardball tactics could only get him so far before he would have to bend a bit to fulfill his client's dream of being a major leaguer. Furthermore, Matsuzaka did not want to face the shame of returning to Japan without a deal. In a sense the Sox had Boras over a barrel, as it appears his client was not willing to hold out as long as he was.

The Damon connection? At the welcoming press conference on Thursday the team held up Dice K's new jersey for all the Boston media to see. The number – 18 - is very familiar to Sox fans. It used to be the one worn by centerfielder Johnny Damon, who left the Sox last year to patrol center for the hated Yankees. Talk about your rich irony. I’ll be counting the days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.