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The Red Sox announced tonight that they have exercised the 2012 option on Marco Scutaro's contract, which brings him back for another year at $6 million. If the team had not exercised the option, the buyout would have been $1.5 million.
2011 was actually one of Scutaro's best seasons, hitting .299 / .358 / .389 with 7 homers and 54 runs batted in. For our sabermetric friends, Scutaro generated 1.4 Wins Above Replacement according to baseball-reference, a further regression from last year's 2.5 and his peak of 5.5 from the year before.
Corey Bourassa of the Providence Journal suggests that this means the Red Sox can keep Jed Lowrie and Mike Aviles as utility infielders and "shortstop of the future" Jose Iglesias can remain in Triple-A for another year of seasoning.
2012 will be the 36 year old's 11th season in the majors and his third season with Boston. He's had previous stints with the Mets, A's, and Blue Jays.