Winter Meetings 2012: Mike Napoli Close To Deal With the Boston Red Sox

With the Winter Meetings finally here, the Boston Red Sox are reportedly very close to signing first basemen/DH/Catcher(maybe) Mike Napoli to what is rumored to be a 3 year deal. This is coming on the heels of a season in which the Red Sox dealt Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford for virtually no one. So how do they fix the problems? They sign Mike Napoli. Yes, I’m not kidding.

If they end up going through with this, it’ll be a questionable horizontal move. What is Mike Napoli going to do for this team over that 3 year period? Is he going to be their best signing? If so, what’s the point? He’s not going to be a difference maker as the Red Sox have WAY more problems than adding a 20-70 type of player. Why not save the money, rebuild the system and make a much bigger splash in next year’s offseason? Even thought the Red Sox have plenty of cash to spend in the offseason, you really have to wonder how much this move is going to help the team.

With all due respect to Napoli (who happens to be a very decent player) this deal just doesn’t make sense to me. The Red Sox need pitching more than anything, so I find this to be just a crazy move.

We’ll see what else they do over the next several weeks and I hope this isn’t the best move they make this offseason, as it won’t get them any closer to regaining their dominance in the AL east.