In a great weekend that highlighted two Bruins overtime thrillers and a Patriots win in the AFC championship, the Red Sox boring offseason continued. They traded away their starting shortstop in Marco Scutaro for righthanded pitcher Clayton Mortensen. Mortensen doesn’t seem like a big impact guy, just seems like a sinkerball pitcher the Sox will use out of the pen, perhaps in long relief situations.
Two big things come out of this trade: First, the Sox freed up money that can go to other free agent acquistions. I’m really hoping this money can go to getting a pitcher like Roy Oswalt, or help solve the mess in outfield now that Crawford is injured. Second, it brings up the fact that the Sox haven’t figured out the shortstop position in years. Ever since the Human Vacuum Cleaner, Nomah, was traded from the Sox in 2004, the position has been in shambles. Renteria, Lugo, Pokey Reese, Scutaro. All busts. We traded away Hanley Ramirez (which can’t be criticized- it was a win win trade for both sides).
Looks like 22 year old shortstop Jose Iglesias will finally get his shot at the big leagues. He’s about as surehanded as it gets at short, but the guy is a shit batter. Can’t hit at all. I mean the guy hit .235 in the minor leagues last year, so I can only imagine him in the Majors. I don’t care how good of a fielder he is, but every Red Sox fan wants to see offensive production and there is no way he can last in Boston hitting barely above the Mendoza line.
Boston Sports Blog 
It’s unfair to say Scutaro was a bust, the guy had arguably the best two seasons of his career while in Boston. In his two years here he produced over his career averages in almost every major statistical category. His fielding wasn’t to shabby either posting a .965 in his first year and a .972 in his second year at SS, which was good for 15th among all SS’s in the MLB. Scutaro was perfect for the Red Sox, he didnt break the bank and played at a very productive level.
I agree to an extent Justin. Scutaro wasn’t as much a bust as guys like Renteria or Lugo, but he was still a bust. Scutaro was the 7th highest paid shortstop in the league last year, so now his stats don’t look so appetizing.
Was he worth that much money? No, probaly not.
I just didn’t agree with the bust label on a guy who put up the best numbers of his career here and gave us pretty good consistency at the SS posistion. Unfortunately we have bigger needs right now and could use the money on a pitcher like you stated in the blog post.
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