Adrian Gonzalez Denies That Red Sox Have Worked Out Contract Extension

Shortly after the Red Sox worked out an Adrian Gonzalez trade with the Padres, it was reported that the Red Sox and Gonzalez had agreed to a contract extension, but were waiting to announce it until after Opening Day to take advantage of a luxury tax loophole.

Now, via SB Nation Boston, we learn that Gonzalez told a Mexican website that no extension has been agreed to. Says Gonzalez:

“Nothing about that is true,” Gonzalez told Fernando Ballesteros. “It’s false. I haven’t signed any contract.”

“Look, the market changes every day in baseball. Right now I don’t know what to tell you because the team could use it to its advantage, so the day that [the Red Sox] want to sit down and discuss my contract, we’ll happily do it, and that day we’ll say what we want.”

“The only thing I have for sure is the contract I had already signed with the Padres, and what I can tell you is that over the course of the season we’re going to negotiate to reach an agreement.”

Now, there are two ways to take this. One, if the Red Sox and Gonzalez had already worked out an extension but were planning to delay an announcement, Gonzalez would of course have to issue denials, because to do otherwise would ruin the whole thing. However, the other option is to take this at face value, and Gonzalez does seem pretty convincing.

So either an extension has been worked out, or it hasn’t. We don’t know. All we can say for sure is that the Red Sox wouldn’t have made the trade if they weren’t confident that they could get him locked up.