Carl Crawford apparently had a very emotional offseason.
Earlier this week Crawford said that he was “creeped out” by the Red Sox admitting that they followed him both on and off the field last year in preparation for potentially signing him as a free agent and yesterday he told Jon Heyman of SI.com that he felt the Angels’ method of pursuing him as a free agent “was weird.”
Crawford was linked to the Angels more than any other suitor at the beginning of the offseason, but the team’s reported six-year, $108 million offer (with a seventh-year option) was $34 million less than he ended up getting from the Red Sox and $18 million less than fellow free agent outfielder Jayson Werth got from the Nationals.
Here’s more from Crawford:
They obviously didn’t want me that bad because I’m a Red Sox. I don’t know what happened. It was weird. I heard they said my contract was too much. Then they paid more [per year] to Vernon Wells. I didn’t understand that. [Werth] is 31 and I’m 29. It didn’t make sense to me, either. And this is why I’m a Red Sox.
All of which is interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Angels screwed up by not out-bidding the Red Sox for Crawford. The notion that he’s not worth a seven-year, $142 million commitment is hardly outlandish, so while the Angels’ method of pursuing Crawford may have seemed odd and their final offer wasn’t particularly competitive with the contract he ended up signing that doesn’t mean they made a mistake (later deciding to take on Vernon Wells’ contract was a pretty clear mistake, but that’s a mostly separate decision).
