Red Sox shortstop Stephen Drew is off to a slow start since his belated re-signing last month, and general manager Ben Cherington is already being forced to defend the move — just days after Drew’s season debut.
“I was really surprised to see that today,” Cherington said, according to the Boston Globe, responding to an accusation from baseball writer Peter Gammons that the Boston media forced Cherington to make the move.
“We know Stephen Drew really well. We signed Stephen Drew because I made a recommendation to ownership to sign Stephen Drew.”
Cherington said internal discussions about signing Drew were brewing for a while, and that they decided to re-sign Drew once third baseman Will Middlebrooks broke his index finger on May 16. Drew was signed four days later for $10 million.
“Based on our medical information, we knew it was going to be a good amount of time,” he said. “I felt like [Drew] was physically at the time of the signing that it wouldn’t take him a long time to help our team.”
Drew’s 2014 is going exactly how his 2013 ended. Since his season debut last Monday, the 31-year-old has notched only one hit in 14 at-bats for an .071 average. He hit .111 (6-for-54) in the postseason for the Red Sox.
Drew rejected a $14.1 million qualifying offer after last season, thinking he could do better on the free-agent market. However, no suitors made a serious play for him — including the Mets.