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| Lucchino Holds Court At The Fort |
Larry Lucchino stated to reporters today that—contrary to what some think—
the Yankees and Red Sox are 'very different animals' when it comes to free agency. The Red Sox CEO correctly noted that Boston rarely signs free agents to long-term, big-money deals anymore. In fact, during the last two years, the only free-agent signed beyond a year was
Shane Victorino (and that was just for three years)—while
The Evil Ones have signed three big-money, long-term free agents just this off-season (
Masahiro Tanaka,
Jacoby Ellsbury,
Brian McCann). Said Lucchino,
"I always cringe when people lump us together. Other baseball teams sometimes do that. They are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankees style of high-priced, long-term free agents. And, uh, I can’t say that I wish them well, but I think that we’ve taken a different approach. If you compare what we did last year in the offseason to what they did this year, there’s quite a contrast there." Of course, he
did say that Boston might fall prey to their old ways again,
"We do keep open the prospect of having, signing a long-term deal with a free agent paying a sizable amount of money to attract a star in his prime. The Yankees do it more often, it seems to me that they do it more often as a matter of course. And for us it would be more the exception than the rule."
