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December 14, 2004

A Farewell to Arm

In what comes as no real surprise to Red Sox fans, Pedro Martinez has pitched his last game in a Boston uniform after signing with the New York Mets pending his passing a physical. Ultimately, as it so often does for ballplayers, it came down to money: the Mets were willing to pay more for Pedro's services than Boston was, and so Pedro jumped. I don't think you can really blame Pedro for that, as baseball is ultimately a business and players have a limited window in which to earn money for their abilities. Nonetheless, this is a painful loss for Sox fans both emotionally and strictly from a team sense.

Emotionally, Pedro had been with the Sox seven years and had become a fixture of the team. While some of his antics could be infuriating, like his need to leave for the All Star break a week early, he could also provide the lighter touch in the dugout, laughing and playing with his teammates to ease the tension during a tough game. And there was never any doubt about one thing: Pedro cared about winning. When he was on the mound, he gave you his all. It was often painful to watch his struggles this year for precisely that reason; it was obvious he'd lost something, yet he refused to give in, taking the mound and trying to make up for lost stuff with more guile and guts. And ultimately getting away with it, as he did in his final start for Boston, shutting down St. Louis for seven critical innings in game three of the World Series. That's not a bad valedictory.

From the team's standpoint, the Sox are certainly no longer nearly as strong as they were. A rotation of Schilling, Martinez, Wells, Arroyo, Wakefield would have been one of the best in the league. Schilling, Wells, Arroyo, Wakefield, Kim is a big letdown. Jason Varitek has to be pleased, as this will put more pressure on the Sox to keep him around. But keeping Varitek won't help the rotation, which needs at least a short-term fix for next year, and which will probably need a long-term fix as well, since the Sox will be lucky to get one good year out of Wells. The one good piece in all this is that the Sox won't overpay for Carl Pavano, who is by far the most overrated pitcher of this offseason.

Good luck to Pedro. I suspect he may yet come to regret this decision, as even without him the Sox are a lot better bet to win than the Mets. But we'll miss him.