So a guy heads over to the ESPN cafe for a nice lunch, figures nothing important is going to happen this afternoon, gets back to his temporary work space and discovers … this?
According to Tony Massarotti,
Curt Schilling might miss this season with a shoulder injury
and the Boston Red Sox suspect he hid the injury before signing his latest contract.
| While neither Schilling nor Sox officials could be reached for comment, baseball sources have indicated that the club has at least inquired about the possibility of voiding the one-year, $8 million contract Schilling signed last November. It is not
known to what lengths the Sox have gone on the matter, but their threat has been serious enough to create a conflict between Schilling and the Red Sox.
While the precise nature of Schilling's injury is not known, it is believed that the right-hander is suffering from an injury to the rotator cuff and/or labrum that might require surgery. It is possible that the sides disagree on how to treat Schilling's
ailment and that a course of treatment, too, is a part of their disagreement. |
Boston can forget about that $8 million. If the Rockies couldn't get their money back from
Denny Neagle, the Sox aren't getting theirs from Schilling. It's gone, and for the Red Sox, $8 million basically is a rounding error, anyway.
The question is what this means for the Red Sox in 2008. Can they live without Schilling in the rotation? Consider this: On the
depth chart,
Clay Buchholz,
the kid who threw the no-hitter last year, isn't listed among Boston's top five starters. Granted, the nice thing about having more money than
Scrooge McDuck is you can afford to pay
more than five good starting pitchers, because, of course, it's almost impossible to get through a season with only five.
But don't you think most teams would be thrilled to open the season with a rotation consisting of
Josh Beckett,
Daisuke Matsuzaka,
Tim Wakefield,
Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz? Granted, there are some real question marks there, as only Beckett seems like a lock for 15-18 wins. But it's not like Schilling, at 41 and with a falling strikeout rate, wasn't a question mark himself.
When the Red Sox need help, they might turn to
Justin Masterson, probably their No. 1 pitching prospect, once Buchholz is up in the bigs for good. And, of course, they have the resources to deal for a starter if things get rough after Memorial Day.
Does losing Schilling hurt? Sure. My guess is that with Schilling, we'd have projected 96 wins for the Red Sox in 2008. Without him, we'll probably knock that all the way down to 94 or 95.
Rob Neyer
