After spending countless spring trainings in Arizona with the San Diego Padres, Adrian Gonzalez is now spending the first of what we hope is many spring trainings in Ft. Myers, FL with the Boston Red Sox. And if he stays around, which is expected, he’ll even get to play in a mini-Fenway Park when the Red Sox new spring training home opens in 2012.
Speaking of that contract, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports that Gonzalez is not worried about his contract situation right now.
Gonzalez indicated he has not imposed deadlines for an extension, so there won’t be any contentious contract squabble, at least not now.
In fact, Gonzalez’s agent, John Boggs, won’t arrive in Fort Myers until around March 8 and that would appear to be the first time the sides will meet face-to-face since the 48-hour summit they held in Boston at the time of the Gonzalez deal.
It appears both sides have a general idea of how many dollars and years it would take to get a deal done.
The rumor has been since Gonzalez was traded to the Red Sox that a deal for around seven years, $152-$154 million would be announced after opening day. Gonzalez has also stated in the past that he’s not looking for Albert Pujols money which for the Red Sox can be a good thing.
And with Carl Crawford around for the next seven years that’s a pretty good duo plus you have the core of the team in Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett around. And that’s not to mention having Clay Buchholz under team control for the next few years.
Gonzalez also told reporters that he expects to be ready for opening day.
So things are looking up here in Red Sox Nation for 2011 and years to come. And I, for one, can’t wait for it.
Photo credit: Steve Silva – Boston.com
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