The Curious Case of Stephen Drew

When the baseball off-season opened, shortstop Stephen Drew was seen as one of the most attractive free agent available. Drewturned down the Red Sox qualifying offer as agent Scott Boras was looking for a four-year contract for upwards of $60 million. Now it appears Drew will be lucky to equal the qualifying offer, and if everything breaks right, he could wind up on the Mets.

The Sox apparently do not want to sign Stephen Drew for more than one season, which means perhaps the Mets can sneak in the back door with a reasonable two-year deal.

I never understood the excitement over Drew, and the market has proven my skepticism to be correct. Drew is a decent player, but he is not a difference maker, certainly not a $15 million a year player.

The way things are going, Drew could possibly be had on a two-year deal at around $8 million per year, which is appropriate for a good fielder and a shortstop who will probably deliver 10-15 home runs with about a .265 batting average. The Mets will not get close to that type of production out of Ruben Tejada, and if the Mets can deal Ike Davis (a huge “if” at this point), the Mets can remain in their budget range of around $87 million.

The Mets would have to sacrifice their third round pick in the draft to sign Stephen Drew, but it would be well worth it. The Mets recent track record of drafting position players is not very good, and there is no reason to think it will get any better. So getting Drew for cash and that pick would be a very good deal for the Mets.

There is a very good chance this could happen. Then again, Boras always seems to be able to score a huge contract for a player when there appears to be no market for that player. Whether he can work his magic with Stephen Drew remains to be seen it again, but if he can, the money will not be coming out of the Wilpons’ account.