It took the Boston Red Sox five weeks to work out a deal with J.D. Drew and seven more to get the agreement on paper, and they still haven't added him to their roster.
There's no holdup, the team said Friday.
The club announced the US$70 million deal on Jan. 26, seven weeks after preliminary agreement was reached, but Drew's deal still hasn't been technically finalized.
``It is not uncommon for this to take several weeks,'' team spokesman John Blake said.
Boston's 40-man roster is full, so the Red Sox would have to remove a player from it to add Drew.
After the preliminary deal was reached Dec. 5, lawyers fashioned an arrangement that would allow Boston to opt out of the guaranteed money for 2010 and 2011 if Drew's right shoulder injury recurs. The shoulder was operated on in September 2005.
``From the moment we agreed to this contract, a couple months ago now, both sides knew it was going to get done,'' Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said at the news conference Jan. 26.
Drew became a free agent when he opted out of the last three years of his five-year, $55 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
