Boston Red Sox hold Marco Scutaro for 2012 – MLB News
Boston Red Sox new general manager Ben Cherington has started making his moves after signing to the club last week.
According to news sources, Ben Cherington has decided to exercise the 2012 contract option of short-stop Marco Scutaro on Sunday. Cherington has reportedly agreed to offer 6-million-dollar option to the right-hander to retain him for one more year.
The decision to take Scutaro back for 2012 has already been decided by the Red Sox ex-GM Theo Epstein, but the offer was still to make which Cherington did on Sunday. Epstein had already decided the terms on which the most valuable short-stop of 2011 was
to hire. According to the decided conditions, Scutaro will get 6-million-dollars from the club and 3-million-dollrs if he himself decided to stay.
The Red Sox had not hired any player able to hold the position with the standards that Nomar Garciaparra had created in 2004. Since Nomar was traded in the World Series Championship winner season of 2004, the position was constantly being moved and Scutaro
has reportedly stabilised it. Before singing Scutaro in 2009, the then GM Theo Epstein had experienced about seven different short-stops, but the place seemed to a difficult task for every player.
The experts however believe it might not be as valuable a deal as it was in 2009 as the right-hander now has turned 36 and it must have an effect over his performance. Scutaro was signed to a two-year 12.5-million-dollar deal that according to same baseball
experts was one of the best decisions of 2009.
Critics also quote his performance in the 2011 in which he made 12 errors playing at short-stop in 109 games, but Scutaro set this apart with his brilliant batting. The right-hander played a career-best .299 this past season, the second highest among the
American League short-stops, in his 400 plate appearances.
Scutaro is being considered the most productive shortstop for the Red Sox in final phases of the season. While the club was facing a severe 7-20 month of September, Scutaro managed to increase his performance and put in a valuable contribution to the team.
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