So I'm hearing Youkilis was traded today. I know a little about Zack Stewart that was apart of the trade. He was a prospect within the Jays organization. He was brought to the majors with being #3-#5 within a young starting rotation with the Jays at the time. Soon traded away (months) as he was brought up. The last I saw of him was this year and he was bullpen fodder for the White Socks.
Is Youkilis a rental player? To be honest I don't know what his contract status is.
This was the last year of Youkilis being under a Red Sox contract, There is a club option for 13 million for next year, or a million dollar bye-out if it's not picked up. Kevin has spent a lot of time on the DL over the last two full seasons. Down the stretch last year when the team was really struggling, he came up with a quad injury ( DL for the second time in 11 ) and was lost for the remainder of the season. He had also spent much time on the DL the year prior.
More of the same this year, as he only played in 42 of the Red Sox 72 games before being traded. During this off season the Sox really cleaned house after that dreadful finish last year. Yeah, most people who follow the game knows they let the GM, and the Manager go. But the Bench Coach, Pitching Coach, and the First Base coach were gone as well. One other note, unless you follow the Sox extremely close, you would have missed the fact that they also fired all of the team's trainers as well.
All the good that did, as of yesterday Boston was leading MLB in games lost being on the DL. It was 895 games. The next team on the list had 715 games lost to injuries. And today they put Bucholz on the 15 day DL. Boston has played their best baseball of the season over these last two weeks. As they get healthier, I believe they will be steam rolling over a lot of teams down the stretch.
