Tony DeMarco

Well all the media outlets proved to be right about the Boston Red Sox being the highest bidders for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

What they missed out on was the amount, which was reported to be anywhere from $42 to $50 million. Turns out the bid was even higher, at $51.1 million, for the rights to negotiate with the 26-year-old right-hander who is about to become the world’s most scrutinized baseball player.

The bid merely gives the Red Sox the right to negotiate with the notorious Scott Boras —Matsuzaka’s agent — and work out a contract within 30 days. Which, considering the going rate for a No. 1-2 starter, could be worth along the same lines as the bid. So at the low end, we’re talking $75-80 million over three or four years for a pitcher who hasn’t thrown a pitch in the American major leagues. At the high end, we could be looking at another $100-million man.

Just six winters years ago, Ichiro Suzuki went through the same posting process. The Seattle Mariners won with a $13-million bid and gave him a three-year, $14-million contract. Think the game’s financial landscape has changed much since then?

We are talking about similar talents — both Suzuki and Matsuzaka were at the top of their positions in the Japanese game — and you can make the argument there is more risk involved with Matsuzaka since he comes with the wear-and-tear of many high-pitch-count games since his teenage years.

But this is going to be a fiscal off-season for the ages, as the game is flush with revenue — $5 billion or so annually — and there are more teams with more money to shell out than at any time since the winter of 2000-01. The Red Sox decided that striking first was the way to go in a market that is headed in only one direction — up.

Forget the conspiracy theories about this being a way to block the Yankees from getting Matsuzaka. The Red Sox should be thinking only of signing him. Or maybe you’ve forgotten, but they finished third in the American League East with an 86-76 record, a game behind the Toronto Blue Jays and 11 behind the Yankees.

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They have a 40-year-old ace, another 40-year-old in their rotation and yet another in their bullpen, not to mention holes at closer, second base, shortstop and in the outfield. In other words, they have a lot of making up to do for two off-seasons filled with regrettable decisions — Johnny Damon, Bronson Arroyo-for-Wily Mo Pena, etc. — that dropped them from World Series champions to playoff outsiders. Since they couldn’t outsmart the Yankees, they instead will try to emulate them by spending.

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