Sox resign Josh Beckett

The Red Sox will announce today at a 3 pm press conference that they have signed Josh Beckett to a 4 year contract extension.

Beckett's new deal is expected to cover four seasons and pay the 31-year-old right-hander about $68 million. Toss in the $12 million he's making this season and the Red Sox will owe Beckett a total of $80 million over the next five years, which is essentially identical to the five-year, $82.8 million contract Boston just handed out to John Lackey as a free agent.

Beckett struggled last night in his 2010 debut, serving up back-to-back homers to Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson on the way to giving up five runs in 4.2 innings and failed to record more than one strikeout in a start for the first time since mid-2007.

However, even with that ugly outing he's 65-34 with a 4.08 ERA and 724/206 K/BB ratio in 796.2 innings spread over 123 starts for the Red Sox, plus 5-1 with a 3.88 ERA in the playoffs. Acquired along with Mike Lowell from the Marlins for a package that included Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez in November of 2005, he's currently in the final season of a three-year, $30 million deal.

Beckett, Lackey, and Jon Lester are now each under the Red Sox's control through 2014.

Sox making a mistake with Beckett

So the Red Sox have said that they won't offer Josh Beckett a 5 year deal. 4 years is as high as they will go. Some things the Sox do make me scratch my head. They'll sign an injury prone guy like JD Drew and give Mike Lowell a contract extension at his age back in 2007. They give a guy like Julio Lugo a 4 year contract that they'r still paying for, yet they're going to quibble over 1 year with a guy like Beckett? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I understand that they are concerned about the rotator cuff issue that he had since he was with the Marlins. However, since being in Boston, Beckett has made 30 starts 3 out of the 4 years he has been here. The exception being when he made 27 starts in 2008.

The Sox had no problems giving John Lackey, who is older than Beckett, a 5 year deal. Beckett has more starts over the last 3 seasons than Lackey does. Lackey has elbow problems. For some reason, the Red Sox gave Lackey a 5 year deal. In the 5th year of that deal, there is a clause that if Lackey has problems with that elbow that cause him to miss significant time, he will only be paid the minimum. Couldn't they offer the same thing to Beckett?

I'm just confused about some of the ways the Red Sox do business. They seem to throw their money around freely and over pay for certain players, but when it comes to players who have really earned the money, they decide to draw the line. They refused to give Johnny Damon a 4th year back at the end of the 2005 season after Damon had 4 extremely good seasons here and helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004. Damon went on to have 4 more very good years with the Yankees despite the Red Sox belief that the 4th year would be a problem. They opted to sign Coco Crisp instead. How'd that work out?

Should Josh Beckett decide to walk at the end of this season, the Red Sox will have no one to blame but themselves. Beckett may very well get hurt next year or the year after, but you can say that about any player. I hate to use the word respect when dealing with these issues, because ALL of these players get paid way too much. However, Beckett's track record deserves a little more respect than what the Sox are giving him.

Is Kevin Youkilis on the trading block?

An interesting story on Bleacher Report this morning is quoting a major league source saying that the Red Sox are shopping Kevin Youkilis. He even goes as far to say that the Sox would "love to dump" Youk.

The source goes on to suggest that getting rid of Youkilis would be the first part of a deal that would bring Padres first basemen Adrian Gonzalez to Boston.

Without knowing who this "source" is, I highly doubt the accuracy of this report. Youkilis has a very team friendly contract. He is entering the second year of a four-year deal, Youkilis is scheduled to receive $9.125 million for his services. Trading Youkilis would not be a wise move for the Sox to make.

The more likely scenario has the Sox hanging on to Youkilis and moving him to 3rd base after Adrian Beltre's contract runs out at the end of this season. Remember that the team still has Mike Lowell.

Unless Beltre sets the world on fire this season, it's unlikely that he will be back next year, and it's unlikely that Mike Lowell makes it through this year with the Sox. So the team will need a 3rd baseman next year. Youkilis at 3rd and Gonzalez at 1st would be ideal for this team.

The Sox have plenty of talent in the minors to make a deal for Gonzalez, trading Youkilis is not the answer. What do you think?

Red Sox sign Alan Embree

Alan Embree agreed to a minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, returning him to the team he won the 2004 World Series with.

Wearing his familiar No. 43 Red Sox jersey, the left-hander said "It's been a very interesting 48 hours for me."

Embree's 2009 season ended on July 10 when, pitching for the Rockies, he was hit in the right leg by a line drive, breaking his tibia. He had surgery two days later and a titanium rod and three screws were inserted to reinforce the broken bone.

The 40-year-old Embree had been home in Bend, Ore., playing basketball, skiing, coaching his son's team, and throwing.

Embree is not considered a lefty specialist. In his career, he has held righties to a .264 average, lefties to a .239 average.

It's Official. Nathan will miss 2010 season, needs Tommy John surgery

Twins closer Joe Nathan will miss the 2010 season because of an elbow injury that will require Tommy John surgery.

Nathan, who leads the major leagues with 246 saves since 2004, made the decision after playing catch with Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson for 10 minutes on Sunday.

Nathan hopes to have surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow within two weeks. He was injured on March 6 during a 20-pitch outing in a spring training game against the Red Sox.

Nathan said his goal would be to return at the start of the 2011 season.

The 35-year-old right-hander went 2-2 with a 2.10 ERA and a career-best 47 saves last season.

McGwire admits steroid use

In a statement released to the Associated Press today, Mark McGwire admitted steroid use during his career. Here is what the statement said:

"Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.

I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season.

I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too.

I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

Baseball is really different now - it's been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.

I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."