Should Sox get Gagne?

Patrick Fitzpatrick asks:

As many of the rumors involving Manny and the Sox have centered around the acquisition of a closer, it will be interesting to see how the Sox approach Eric Gagne.

Originally it was reported that Gagne would work out for teams in about a month, giving teams the opportunity to see for themselves that Gagne’s health is no longer of concern. However, the latest rumblings have Boras seeking a new home for the former lights-out Cy-Young award winner by the end of the week. If this is true, and if the Sox are indeed going to be a major player in the Gagne sweepstakes, what implications (if any) will this have on trade talks involving Ramirez? At first glance it would be unrealistic to think that any team would sign Gagne with expectations that Gagne would come into spring training as the team’s closer.

Thus if the Sox were to sign Gagne, it would be in their best interest to have a good backup plan. However, it is equally as unrealistic to think that Boras isn’t going to squeeze every last penny from the team that signs him. With players such as Vincent Padilla locking down $34 million dollar contracts, one can only speculate how much Gagne will command in the surging market that is the 2006 off-season.

This raises two important questions: (1) how strongly should the Sox pursue Gagne, and (2) if they are successful, what affect would this have on the team’s demands for Manny?

Ideally, the Sox should try to sign Gagne to an incentive-based contract that would allow Gagne to collect the money that he seeks if he is healthy, and protect the Sox if he is not. But, and this is a major but, what are the chances that Boras would accept such a deal? While Gagne’s 2006 salary was $10 million, that figure was based on Gagne’s performance before any health concerns. Is Gagne’s upside worth the risk that he could be collecting a King’s ransom from the DL?