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What's "updated" here?

It's not much of an update but it gives the impression that a deal is probably going to be struck.  It's over a month now.  Surely if the two sides were far apart they would have walked away by now and pursued other avenues rather than waste all this time. 

Maybe I Should Have Posted  NAPOLI THE PER GLOBE, JFC......

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In response to Hfxsoxnut's comment:

True.  Some news is something.  Nothing tangible, but something.  Plus, it is Monday evening.....

I can't stand Napoli and the "Napoli saga"

 

Sox will sign him within this week i think. 

I don't understand the mindset that says "I can't stand ________"  - the situation is one that the Red Sox FO precipitated and is continuing at the pace they are exacting - not necessarily in speed but in issue related pace.

Who can fault the FO for being cautious?

In response to SinceYaz's comment:

I can't stand Napoli because he is a terrible player.

I can't stand the Napoli situation because the Sox are moving heaven and earth to sign a terrible player.

 

One might wonder:

Is it better to make sure language is written into a contract making sure the club is not on the hook if player has a Mike Lowell/A-Rod hip

or 

just not sign the player with the Mike Lowell/A-Rod hip.

Of course, Napoli might not have Lowell/A-Rod hip.  But that is a scary gamble.  

In response to seannybboi's comment:

Agree With A.L Off The Table....

In response to SpacemanEephus' comment:

yeah it is risky business with the hip and its hard to say what the correct course is.. personally, i would scrap it, trade for a 1Bman with 1-2 years left and have lava learn to play 1B in AAA this year. Of course the hip thing could be a false alarm and the sox saw it as an opportunity to save money, years and/or make sure if he does get injured they are not on the hook for a decent chunk of change.

 

Sox fans rejoice! We're finally going to get our first baseman! According to the Globe's Peter Abraham:

It has taken over a month to try and hammer out what basically is an insurance clause for the Red Sox, I'm just curious to know what that clause is. I highly doubt it's something similar to John Lackey's clause considering that more and more pitchers come back better than ever from Tommy John surgery. Unless Napoli is considering a hip replacement, I doubt that the Sox would want to tack on an extra year for a catcher with a bad hip, even at the veteran minimum. 

It's going to come down to how much the Sox will owe him if the hip gets injured. It would be a surprise if the Sox were able to just outight void the contract, there's no way Napoli would sign a deal that has that type of clause. The most likely of situation would be just pay him a percentage of the deal and that percentage is what is taking so long to agree on. But it appears that'll all be over, Napoli gets his deal and the Sox get who they want.  Everybody wins. Except Adam LaRoche

This is what's left for FA go for Lee if he still wants to play......

 

69 Casey Kotchman Indians 1B 29 463 12 .229 55 Unrestricted 70 Jason Giambi Rockies 1B 41 89 1 .225 8 Unrestricted 73 Lyle Overbay Braves 1B 35 116 2 .259 10 Unrestricted 86 Carlos Lee Marlins 1B 36 550 9 .264 77 Unrestricted 83 Aubrey Huff Giants 1B 35 78 1 .192 7 Unrestricted; Option Declined, 1 year, $10M

In response to JimfromFlorida's comment:

what a crew

Translation: "We know we have no choice but to sign you, and you know we have no choice but to sign you, so we're gonna stop being coy and just give up the charade already." We SHOULD have signed the unquestionably healthy Laroche, but instead we're going to sign the unquestionably unhealthy Napoli. When will this front office seek help for it's obvious gambling addiction? Rolling the dice is no way for a top flight organization to manage it's affairs. Especially one that's failed far more at it than it's succeeded like we have. Look for us to capitulate and sign basically the originally agreed upon contract, with some token language to make it seem we protected ourselves. But we won't have, because we lost all of our leverage once Laroche signed. Just another failure to perform by a routinely innadequate front office. 

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RS still have leverage. Who else will sign Napoli now, especially to a 3 yr deal?

IMO Napoli has not gone anywhere else looking because he knows what ever he gets here will be better than anywhere else and he knows there will be few takers because of the hip.

The RS also could go with Gomez and Salty at first as well as use Ortiz once in awhile.

Or as I said go out and get Carlos Lee or Casey Kotchman