The Red Sox have had it "easy", salarywise, for the last few years. In 2008, Buckholz, Lester, and Ellsbury were making about $400,000 each, Pedroia I think $457,000, Papelbon about $750,000 and Okajima about $1.2 million. Thats six all-star grade players (Okajima had a great first year as a set-up man), or one fourth of a major league roster, making a total of just over $3,000,000 for the season. And Youkilis made $3,000,000 himself that year. As I wrote here at the time, the market price for free agency eligible players of that quality is about $50 to $60 million a year, which is what the Red Sox will have to be paying them in another year or two if they want to keep them.