Drew, still not official.

Its been thirty-five days since the Red Sox and JD Drew agreed on terms to join the team, however nobody has signed the contract as of yet. This makes JD a free agent still and available to sign with another team, although why would he? With an offer of $70m for 5 years that and a chance to play for Sox? Who wouldn't?

Nevertheless, as with almost every transaction that Theo gets involved in, there is speculation, and in this case about Drew's decision to back out of his 5 year $33m with the Dodgers. Scott Boras, Drew's agent, is being accused of tampering with his contract, and letting Drew know that there was a better offer to be had in free agency. Of course Boras denies all ideas of this being true and the Dodgers decided not to file a tampering charge.

According to Boras, the contract should be signed in the 'near future' although he did not define how near the near future would be. The deal seemed to slow down dramatically after Drew's physical, and the Red Sox doctors do not seem to happy on the situtaion of his right shoulder which was operated on in September 2005. Boras' explanation for the delay was: 'We’re working out medical language that took some additional examination so that both sides would have information. There’s no disagreement here. Theo’s been on vacation. I’ve been working on other contracts. We agreed we would get it done.'

The meaning of this delay might mean the Sox will want to reduce the number of years, possibly to three, or to have a performance clause which gives them the option to terminate the contract if his playing time is limited due to injury.