Red Sox roller coaster by Jared Carrabis
After an emotional roller coaster ride, Red Sox finally complete Gonzalez deal


I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest?

Just minutes after the 2pm ET deadline for the Red Sox, Adrian Gonzalez and his agent to negotiate a contract extension that would keep the All Star slugger in Boston for many years, Red Sox Nation got punched in the gut via Twitter.

After reports began to surface that the Red Sox would not oppose to moving forward with a trade without an extension agreed upon, SI.com’s Jon Heyman tweeted that the trade talks between Boston and the San Diego Padres had fallen through, sending Red Sox Nation into a panic-filled rage on the internet.

Peter Gammons later added that Gonzalez was headed out of Boston at 4:30pm ET, leaving over a hundred million dollars on the table, and a city full of excited, passionate, and now shocked, baseball fans in the dust.

While this might sound like the end of the world, a complete failure on behalf of Theo Epstein and the Red Sox front office, a complete PR disaster and a guarantee that Boston will finish behind the Yankees yet again, those pessimistic thoughts were premature.

Jon Morosi of Fox Sports tweeted in reference to a source who said the trade talks between the Red Sox and Padres are "not done yet," as Sox fans started to climb down from the tallest buildings in Boston.

The Red Sox and Gonzalez continued to negotiate after the 2pm deadline, as the breaking point prior to time expiring was Boston offering a five-year, $120 million deal, but Gonzalez not budging from requesting six years and $150 million, according to Ken Rosenthal.

Finally, around 9pm ET, Jon Heyman tweeted that the deal had finally been completed, and that Gonzalez was a member of the Boston Red Sox. However, the deal was completed without a contract extension to go along with it.

Although no extension has been officially agreed upon, Heyman added that the Red Sox and Gonzalez “have common ground on parameters” for an extension to be completed on a later date. Most likely, the Red Sox will finalize and announce their contract extension with the power-hitting first baseman some time after Opening Day. Should the Red Sox officially announce an extension after Opening Day, the new deal would not impact the 2011 payroll, thus saving the Red Sox some dollars after luxury tax is factored in.

In essence, Epstein went from the hero, to the goat, to the hero again in less than twenty-four hours. The Red Sox ownership group went from men motivated to win, to cheapos, back to an ownership determined to win again.

A press conference will be held at 11am on Monday at Fenway Park to officially announce the Red Sox’ acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez. From there, we may get more of the details that will help fill in the blanks as to what happened, and what is going to happen in terms of an extension.

According to Heyman, the Red Sox plan to add seven years and $161 million to Gonzalez’s contract, which would keep the superstar in Boston through 2018.

-Jared Carrabis

Published on December 06, 2010

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