About a month ago, there where rumors that the sox where trying to sign Beltre to a long term deal for 4 or 5 years and the first thing that came into my mind was that this had the potential to be one of those long term albatross signings like Lugo or Drew; luckily it seems Theo has learned from those mistakes and the long term rumors where just bluster from agent Scott Boras. I love this signing in the short term. Beltre had an off year last year, but that was mostly due to a shoulder injury and getting hit in the balls by a ball. Everything is prime for Beltre to have a very good year this year. First off he is going to move from the huge left field of Safco Field to Fenway so he should be closer to his average year fro HRs which is in the mid 20s. In addition, Beltre's best year was a contract year and this short term deal with only a 5 million player option for next year essentially makes this a contract year for Beltre and at the age of 31 this may be his last shot for a big long term deal so that gives him all the motivation in the world to be better. As has been said by numerous people, Beltre is great a defense and this should give us the best defensive infield in baseball. The only down side is that Beltre has never been a great OBP guy. Overall though, this was a great move.