Apparently The Red Sox Don't Learn From Their Recent Mistakes

Nothing like waking up on a Monday morning, after a marathon Patriots loss on Sunday night, and finding out that the Red Sox have signed a complete piece of garbage that you can't stand. Boston and free agent shortstop Stephen Drew have agreed to a one-year deal worth $9.5 million plus $500,000 in performance bonuses.

If the name is familiar, it is because he is the younger brother of former Red Sox whipping boy J.D. Drew. So yes, after one glorious season without a Drew in Boston, we are going to be forced to suffer through another campaign from an injury-prone, overpaid, underachieving lifeless Southern robot.

Stephen and J.D.'s careers have followed similar paths: they were much hyped first-round picks out of Florida State, represented by superagent Scott Boras and somehow they've hoodwinked numerous MLB teams out of millions of dollars for years. I'll give Stephen credit that he had four decent seasons in a row (2007-10) but true to his heritage, he played 86 games with Arizona in 2011 and 79 combined between the Diamondbacks and A's last season.

The frustrating part with the Red Sox is that much like J.D., for some unknown reason, they've been obsessed with Stephen for as long as he's been in MLB. I just don't get it beyond the fact that they need a short-term fix at shortstop. Jose Iglesias is hopeless at the plate and seems destined to be Rey Ordonez Jr. at best while their top positional player prospect-shortstop Xander Bogaerts is probably a year away from reaching the Red Sox.

Stephen's best season to date was 2008 in Arizona: 152 games, 91 runs, 178 hits, 44 doubles, 11 triples, 21 homers, 67 RBIs. He hit .291 with .333 OBP and .502 SLG. For his career, he's a .265 hitter with .328 OBP and .433 SLG.

One of the ironic things is that he's probably no better than Mike Aviles who the Red Sox had no interest in retaining (they shipped him to Toronto for manager John Farrell). Aviles was later dealt to Cleveland so I guess nobody wants the poor guy. Given his last name, his brother's struggles in Boston and hefty price tag for such an average player, it's not hard to predict that Stephen's short stay with the Red Sox will be painful for both the team and fans alike.

UPDATE 12/19: The Red Sox designated right-handed reliever Pedro Beato for assignment. He was obtained from the Mets in the Kelly Shoppach trade in August. Beato went 1-0 with a 4.70 ERA in four games with seven strikeouts and three walks in 7 2/3 innings for Boston.

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