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Two sources have confirmed the deal between the Red Sox and Mike Lowell needs only some wording. Lowell will get $37.5 million over the length of the deal, which is about $1 millon less than he made over his entire career up to this point.
The World Series MVP (joining fellow WS MVPs Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez) is also expected to take a physical tomorrow.
This basically means the Red Sox need only fill in some holes in the bullpen before pitchers and catchers begin in mid-February in three months.
Lowell becomes the second Red Sox free agent to take less money and maybe one less year (ESPN.com’s Buster Onley reports the Phillies offered a fourth year and neary $50 million), as Schilling probably took about $3 million fewer dollars than he could have received on the open market. He probably could have held out for two years, too.
My guess is that most everyone is OK with this move. It not only keeps this team, which is arguably the best in baseball in 2008, together, but it saves the Sox from having to move players around and saves Theo Epstein from expending resources on another third baseman or first baseman.
What striking about this deal is the Red Sox held firm from their first offer, about $36 million overall over three years, only chipping in a tad more to seal it.
After the year he had, Lowell deserved three years. He got it.
Do you agree? Are the Sox in “Schaefer City” as our dads used to say?