Josh Beckett: Red Sox made up injury to keep Aaron Cook from going to Yankees
Like many stars before him, Josh Beckett’s time with the Boston Red Sox came to an ugly end. The former starting pitcher was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2012 season amid questions about his work ethic and attitude, many of which stemmed from the time Beckett was spotted golfing a day after the Red Sox announced he would miss a start due to injury.
The big problem with that perception, Beckett says, is that he was never actually injured. In an interview with the “Toucher and Rich Show” on 98.5 The Sports Hub Thursday, Beckett claimed the Red Sox made up a fake injury so they could call up pitcher Aaron Cook and prevent him from opting out of his contract.
“Aaron Cook had an opt-out in his contract, I was pitching terrible – which is my fault – so we made up an injury so that [the Red Sox] could call him up, so he didn’t opt out and go to the Yankees,” Beckett said. “That was a thing, but I don’t think that that’s actually legal to do. I don’t think you can just phantom DL somebody.”
Aaron Cook, really? Beckett was pitching horrible at the time. He went 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA with the Red Sox in 2012 before being traded to the Dodgers. Perhaps Boston felt that Cook would be a valuable piece in the rotation, though he finished the season 4-11 with a 5.65 ERA. And we all know how petty the Red Sox and Yankees can get with gamesmanship.
“That’s the whole thing that I had a problem with is that nobody really stood up, and that’s when I knew it was kind of the end [of my time in Boston],” Beckett added. “You don’t have anybody in the organization backing you either .. so that’s when I knew, this is what the end looks like.”
If Beckett’s story is true, the Red Sox allowed the public to believe he went golfing despite missing a start with lat and shoulder injuries. Maybe that had something to do with Beckett being one of the alleged ringleaders of all those infamous clubhouse antics the season before.
