Boston Red Sox break salary record to land pitcher David Price

The 30-year-old led the American League with a 2.45 ERA last season.

Chamberlain was the 41st overall pick in the 2006 draft.

They were desperate, plain and simple.

The Cubs already have earmarked about $73.75 million to eight players for 2016, and tendering contracts to all nine arbitration-eligible players could cost them an additional $34 million. And generally speaking, that’s a wise business philosophy.

Cleveland signed free agent reliever Joba Chamberlain to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. Even Dombrowski admitted recently that such deals are usually born out of “necessity”. The money was due only if Park signed with the Twins.

The Minnesota Twins signed power-hitting first baseman-designated hitter Byung-ho Park to a four-year, $12 million contract with a $6.5 million club option for 2020, according to reports.

If the Sox had a young, controllable future No. 1 starter in their system, it might not have been such a disgusting blunder.

Meanwhile, there are a bunch of negatives being pointed out across Red Sox Nation.

Everyone knows what happened next. It’s no secret that the Yankees are taking a back seat on the top tier of free agent pitchers and had their eyes set on the second tier of guys like Jeff Samardzija and Wei-Yin Chen.

Well, former Sox general manager Ben Cherington is gone so how could this be seen as a slap in the face to Lester?

Amazing, isn’t it, what a desperate owner will do? However, just one year after letting Lester go they are doling out $140 million more for a pitcher without postseason success.

The kind of role he’ll play for his new Red Sox team is expected to be the same to that of what was expected of him with the Yankees last season. Price now becomes the highest paid pitcher in baseball history, beating out the contract Los Angeles signed Clayton Kershaw to in January of 2014 (Seven year $215 million).

He has thrown more than 200 innings in five of the last six seasons and averages almost one strikeout per inning pitched for his career (1,372 strikeouts in 1,441 2/3 innings pitched). By signing an ace instead of trading for one, the Red Sox are able to keep the rest of their farm system intact while also keeping the top young players they have at the major league level (Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Blake Swihart). But it’s very likely to look very good in the short term, because the Red Sox added something much scarcer than dollars or even rotation or roster spots.

Until then, we’ll continue wondering if the whole thing was really necessary in the first place.