It’s time to take “a look back” at the first year of the JD Drew era in Boston.

Following the 2006 season, Drew opted out of his contract with the LA Dodgers and agreed to a five year contract worth $70M with the Boston Red Sox.  Due to worries about the outfielder’s shoulder, the deal includes clauses which will allow Boston to void the fourth year of the contract if Drew should spend 35 days on the disabled list due to his shoulder in his third year, or void the fifth year of the contract if Drew should spend 35 days or more on the disabled list due to his shoulder in the fourth season of the deal.

Now, let’s be clear here.  Drew definitely fleeced Theo Epstein and the Red Sox with this monstrous deal.  There is no doubt about that.  Even with the clauses, giving a 5 year deal to a player with the injury history of JD Drew was a questionable move.   I’m fairly confident no other team would have even come close to Boston’s offer.  So let’s just concede that Drew won this deal, and simply evaluate how much of a fleece it was in the first year.  Was year one a small fleece or a large fleece?

The regular season was a complete and utter disaster for Drew.  He hit just .270 with a meager 11 homeruns.  The $70M man that was brought in to hit behind David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez struggled to even improve upon Trot Nixon’s recent production from past years.  Often, Drew hit 6th or 7th in the lineup.  He hit into 12 double plays and seemed to strikeout looking in a key spot in nearly every single game.  Though his defense was above adequate for the spacious Fenway right field, his offense often left many New Englanders throwing beer cans at their television sets.  If not for Mike Lowell covering for him all year, it’s quite possible that a random Sox fan may have pulled a Tonya Harding on JD Drew last summer.   And despite closing the year by hitting an impressive .342/.454/.618 in September, I think most Red Sox fans would agree that the first regular season of the JD Drew era closed as an “Large Fleece” by Drew and his agent Scott Boras.

But then came the American League Championship Series.  After hitting a measly .182 in the first round of the playoffs versus the Angels, Drew hit .360 in the ALCS against Cleveland.  But his big moment came in Game 6 with the Red Sox facing elimination.  While most Red Sox fans were taking a bathroom break expecting Drew to strike out, Drew actually crushed a mammoth grand slam, shocking millions.  It was the biggest hit of his career.  Dodgers fans probably still don’t believe it.  The homerun propelled the Red Sox to the World Series where they swept Colorado.  (Drew hit .333 in the Fall Classic). 

Many have called that homerun “the $14 million grand slam” (Drew’s annual salary) and have absolved Drew of his miserable regular season because of his October heroics.  This poses an interesting question:  Did that homerun indeed turn year 1 of the Drew era from a “Large Fleece” to just a “Small Fleece”?  Did the World Championship exonerate Epstein from this fleece for 1 year?  Or did Epstein just get lucky when that ball traveled over the wall?  How do we label year 1 of the JD Drew experiment?  I’ll leave it up to our readers:

Filed under: Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, _A Look Back, _Polls