McAdam: When it comes to rebuilding, times have changed

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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- If the Red Sox learned anything in their two-plus days in the desert here, it's this: there are innumerable ways out of their 93-loss nightmare from last season.

But the roster rebuild is not going to be cheap.

The free agent options alone could fill a notebook.

At first base, the Sox could turn to either Mike Napoli or Adam LaRoche.

In the outfield, they could choose from Torii Hunter, or Nick Swisher or Cody Ross.

Among pitchers, there's Hiroki Kuroda, or Anaibal Sanchez.

Each one of these free agents, however, is in commanding position. None will land the kind of mega, nine-figure salary that will go to Josh Hamilton or Zack Greinke, the two biggest prizes on this winter's market.

But thanks to a slew of factors, the numbers will be up substantially. Franchise values have never been higher. As super agent Scott Boras noted in an informal address to reporters Thursday afternoon, it isn't just the 2.1 billion sale price for the Los Angeles Dodgers that's set the bar for how much clubs can fetch, but the 800 million the San Diego Padres sold for late last summer.

In the span of about a decade, the selling price for the Padres eclipsed that of the Red Sox, who seem like a relative bargain now, having been bought up by John Henry and Co. for a mere 660 million.

Part of what's driven franchise values skyward is the glut of local TV rights fees. The mere attraction of negotiating a new local TV deal after next season unquestionably helped the Dodgers set a record for the biggest sale price for a North American sports franchise.

Then there's the sharp increase in national TV money. Under the existing contract, teams were cut a check for approximately 26 million annually from Fox, ESPN and TBS. Beginning with the new deal in 2014, that rights fee will exactly double, giving teams 52 million before they sell a single ticket or hot dog.

(To put that in perspective, consider that new TV check alone would have nearly covered the Tampa Bay Rays payroll of a year ago).

"There's a ridiculous amount of money out there," remarked one baseball executive recently, surveying the game's landscape. "And not just for the big teams."

Indeed, with revenue sharing in place, values escalating and labor peace at hand, the game is positively flush with case.

"I keep hearing that," acknowledged another executive, "and it's coming from agents."

Supply and demand dictate the market, but when teams -- some desperate to make an attention-getting off-season move -- are willing to overpay thanks to record revenues, salaries can quickly skyrocket.

Should the Sox choose to upgrade through trades, they'll pay a different -- but no less exacting price: prospects.

Given that they are disinclined to move Jacoby Ellsbury, the Sox are not in position to trade off their major league roster. That leaves the team's farm system as its most obvious trading chip.

The immediate impact made by Bryce Harper and Mike Trout has only further fed the notion that young (and inexpensive) players are game's true coin of the realm.

The Sox are convinced that the rebuild of the franchise will be keyed by the development of prospects such as Xander Bogaerts, Matt Barnes and Jackie Bradley Jr., all of whom could be ready to contribute by the
beginning of 2014.

Having learned the hard way the danger of long-term deals to the likes of Carl Crawford, John Lackey, Adrian Gonzalez and others, the Sox are committed to using free agency to augment the roster.

That's a sensible approach, since the success of the post-2004 Red Sox came thanks to a fertile farm system which delivered Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester and others.

But if the Sox are to hold firm on not dealing their best prospects, it limits how much they can acquire through trade. They could make incremental improvements, but the dramatic leaps they need.

After the Sox stored away more than a quarter of a billion in savings from their deal with the Dodgers in August, it was thought that the extra resources would allow them to take on contracts deemed too inexpensive for small-market teams.

However, the influx of cash means that few teams are desperate to unload contracts, unless they're so onerous - hello there, Alex Rodriguez -- as to defy logic.

Irony alert: the one team in serious need of ridding itself of financial obligations is the New York Yankees.

If the Red Sox are indeed committed to retaining their prospect nucleus, the trick will be to avoid making the same slip-ups in free agency that got them into last summer's mess in the first place.

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