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The Untradeable Mike Lowell

Dec 21, 2009, 7:15 PM UTC

â†µOn Saturday, news came down that the proposed trade between the Red Sox and Rangers for Mike Lowell was dead. The reason: Lowell failed his physical.â†µ

â†µâ†µIt doesn’t happen very often in baseball that a failed physical puts the kibosh on a trade after the deal has been agreed to by both parties, but occasionally this will in fact happen. So what makes this particular case so outstandingly hilarious? Well, the Red Sox were trading Lowell, to whom they owe a whopping $12 million in 2010 in the last year of a three-year $37.5 million deal, offered to pay 75 percent of the contract and the Rangers still wouldn’t make the deal.â†µ

â†µâ†µDan Lamothe at Red Sox Monster posed the question this morning; “How did Red Sox management not know that Mike Lowell’s right thumb was in bad enough disrepair that he now needs surgery?”â†µ

â†µâ†µLamothe references a Boston Globe story that â†µquotes assistant GM Ben Cherington:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“When the initial injury happened he, nor our medical staff, really felt it was that serious. It was towards the end of the year, we were trying to get ready for the playoffs and so we didn’t want to take any chances, give him some time off to get rested. And even at the end of the playoffs, in our exit physical, he barely made mention of it.”â†µâ†µâ†µThere is clearly egg on the face of the Red Sox, and both Lamothe and the Globe’s Peter Abraham run through the fallout in Boston. First, will Lowell be able to play at all? Cherington thinks this issue will be resolved and that the injury will not preclude Lowell from being ready at the start of spring training. But if the injury isn’t that bad -- albeit bad enough to need surgery -- why wouldn’t the Rangers take a flyer on the slugger for the bargain basement price of three million dollars?â†µ

â†µâ†µThen there’s the whole issue of Lowell heading back into a clubhouse where he was the 2007 World Series MVP and is no longer wanted. He’ll be, at best, a $12 million part-time player for the Red Sox and undoubtedly won’t be happy with his role; nor will the lesser-paid players be happy with Lowell taking up such an expensive ride on the pine.â†µ

â†µ

â†µAbraham suggests that once he's healthy and shows he can swing a bat during spring training -- not swing a bat for power or swing a bat for average, just physically swing a bat in his hands -- the Sox may try to deal him again. Abraham, too, poses the question 'how did the Red Sox not know Lowell's thumb was this bad,' but neither writer asks the question of whether or not the Sox were willing to sell for 25 cents on the dollar because they knew his thumb was this bad.â†µ

â†µâ†µYou’d like to take Cherington, and therefore Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, at his word, but what if this trade were the equivalent of driving to the DMV with a tail-light out and praying the guy inspecting your car is too lazy or hung over to notice? Looks like the Red Sox will be driving around with that giant red REJECTED sticker on the windshield for a while longer.â†µ

â†µ(H/T â†µBig League Stew)â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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