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Red Sox seem to be falling behind in AL

Tony Massarotti

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 26, 2012|By Tony Massarotti

Albert Pujols, left, and C.J. Wilson joined the Angels this offseason,… (Alex Gallardo/AP )

Prince Fielder has gone to Detroit while Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson have landed in Anaheim, all as the Red Sox have been hanging out at the local book swap. That is not meant to be a criticism of Boston’s strategy this winter so much as it is a commentary on the new landscape of the American League.

It’s a good thing baseball is adding another playoff team this year, folks, because the Red Sox might have missed the postseason again otherwise.

They still might.

Amid the Patriots’ march to yet another Super Bowl, some time has passed since we talked baseball. And now, just a few short days after the Red Sox traded their starting shortstop to free up payroll, the Detroit Tigers have secured first baseman Prince Fielder to a whopping nine-year, $214 million dollar contract, giving Detroit - at least in the short term - perhaps the most formidable middle-of-the-order tandem in all of major league baseball.

Make no mistake: what the Tigers have now in Fielder and Miguel Cabrera is pretty darn near what the Red Sox had from 2003 to 2008, when Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz anchored the Boston lineup. During those six seasons, the Red Sox went to four American League Championship Series and won two world titles. They were the best team in the game. Ramirez was traded in the middle of the 2008 season, and the Sox haven’t won a playoff game in the three full years without him.

With regard to the Red Sox payroll and expenditures this offseason, let’s at least try to be fair about this. Estimating their unsettled arbitration cases, Boston’s current projected payroll rests at about $180 million. That is more than enough to win. The obvious problem is that the Red Sox have nearly as much dead money as the Madoff investors, an escalating problem now that the Sox have decided to operate with some level of frugality concerning the $178 million luxury tax threshold.

Two years ago, the Sox were selling us the idea of run prevention. Now they’re trading away their starting shortstop a month before spring training, all so they can save a few million bucks that amount to, what, one or two percent of their payroll?

Yikes.

Meanwhile, the Angels (Pujols and Wilson), Tigers (Fielder), Texas Rangers (Yu Darvish, Joe Nathan) and even New York Yankees (Michael Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda) have made more significant acquisitions than the Red Sox have. Even if you believe that the Red Sox are a better team than the dysfunctional club that went 7-20 en route to a 90-72 finish - and they are - you must admit that the field just got a whole lot tougher. The Red Sox are still a heavyweight - we think - but the 2012 American League now projects to be a Battle Royale like no other in recent memory.