How are we the new evil empire? Due to signing anyone at at any cost. The Red Sox just spent $51 million for the opportunity to sign a player which will be at the "ace" rate. They signed J.D Drew for five years at $70 million. Lugo signs for four years, $36 million. They still are shopping for a closer, who they will spend top money. The payroll is not Yankee payroll, but that gap is not nearly as wide. In fact, it would be very foolish to call the Yankees the evil empire as it relates to spending money. Football is the only major league sport which has a fair salary cap and thus, teams from any market can compete for a championship. Unless the Yankees make some huge free agent splashes before the season starts, then the Sox are indeed the new evil empire (provided they sign the gun from the rising sun).
I didn't realize the sox spending big on free agents is suddenly new. just this decade they've signed Manny, Damon, Foulke, Renteria, and Clement to big FA deals. They've signed Schilling, Beckett, Ortiz, and Varitek to big extensions. They tried to give Nomar 4/$60M and later 4/48. They picked up two $17.5M options on Pedro. All this time they've been able to afford $2-6M filler guys to augment the big stars. And I've probably forgotten some.
The only difference has been that the Sox have used $2-6M filler guys like Belhorn, Millar, Mueller, Walker, Crisp, etc. while the Yankees believe in/can afford a big money star at every position.
In the last few years the Yankees have been backing off of this approach a little with guys like Cano and Melky, both of whom required some patience. This year the Sox have lessened the gap by signing three big free agents (assuming Matsuzaka signs).
There is still a big difference though. The Yankees will still be paying 7 position players (including DH) $12M+ this year. The sox will have 3, with varitek making 10, Lowell making 8 (and he shouldn't really count because he was a poison pill, the sox didn't sign him) and Lugo 9. The guys around 9 are part of the difference though, the Yankees either pay a ton (13M+) or have a guy on a rookie deal. The sox have a spectrum.
So let's not go overboard and pretend that the gap was small enough to be closed in one off-season.
(Don't get me wrong, I understand the sox have an unfair advantage over 28 teams. Let's not pretend though that the Yankees don't have an unfair advantage over 29 teams. Sadly baseball appears to have lost its chance at a salary cap and one does not seem to be in the future.)
