Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro got a present for his 36th birthday yesterday when the team announced they had exercised their option on him, bringing him back to the team another year for $6 million.
In the time Scutaro has been with the Red Sox, he’s batted .284 for the team, with a career season in 2011, hitting .299 in a year that began with him injured and then platooning with infielder Jed Lowrie and ended with him re-solidifying his role as the starting shortstop.
In December of 2009, the Red Sox signed Scutaro to be their full-time shortstop.  Historically under this ownership, the shortstop position hasn’t been the most consistently filled for the Red Sox.  From 2002-2004, Nomar Garciaparra held the spot for what most expected to be his entire career, but a surprise trade in July of 2004 sent Garciaparra to Chicago and placed Orlando Cabrera in the position for the remainder of the season.  Cabrera was replaced in 2005 by Edgar Renteria (with Alex Cora as his backup), followed by Alex Gonzalez in 2006, Julio Lugo  (a decision that will always hang over former General Manager Theo Epstein as being one of the worst free agent signings of his career) from 2007 until he was designated for assignment in July of 2009 when Nick Green took over for the remainder of the season. From 2008 through 2011, Jed Lowrie has played 477 games at shortstop, essentially fighting for his position as a starter with Scutaro in 2011.
The team still has to decide if they’re going to exercise their options on pitchers Dan Wheeler and Andrew Miller and General Manager Ben Cherington has seven Major League free agents and eleven players eligible for arbitration (including Jed Lowrie) this off-season to add to his workload searching for a new manager for the Red Sox.
(Originally published on Examiner.com)