MLB Trade Rumors: Red Sox Clean House with Dodgers Help

Now that the Boston Red Sox have apparently shipped 1B Adrian Gonzalez, P Josh Beckett, 3B/SS Nick Punto and even the much maligned Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers let’s look at the impact this trade has on the franchise.

The Red Sox will get first baseman James Loney, infielder Ivan Dejesus Jr., pitcher Rubby De La Rosa, outfielder Jerry Sands and Allen Webster. Baseball America ranked Webster as the second best pitching prospect in the Dodger organization.

Some people in Red Sox nation are up in arms over the move, but once cooler heads prevail they will realize how shrewd this deal is for the team long term.

First of all the Red Sox are ridding themselves of more than $250 million off the books depending on what the BoSox’s salary contribution will be in the deal. This is an absolute dream trade for a general manager like Ben Cherington to make especially considering Boston’s failures this season.

The team has now dumped a great portion of what was considered by fans to be bad deals with Crawford and Beckett. Gonzalez was well liked for the most part, but he underachieved to an extent as his numbers over the course of the past four seasons have steadily gone down.

Only time will tell if A-Gon is a player showing some decline or if he just was not a good fit in Boston. Maybe he can regain the 40 home-run type power he had for the San Diego Padres out in L.A.

The Red Sox have big hopes for the pitching prospects. Loney will almost certainly just be a throw away player after the season unless things change from here on out. By getting rid of Josh Beckett the Red Sox are turning the page on the “Chicken and Beer” era and I do not mean the Ludacris album from back in the day.

In Carl Crawford’s defense, he was not able to completely prove himself because of injuries. His contract was controversial from the start though and now the Sox can rewind back to the 2010 off-season with Crawford and Gonzalez gone. Both moves did not pay off so the team has been given a big mulligan by the Dodgers.

This is not the biggest trade in baseball history by any measure, but it may be the biggest MLB trade in late August.

Red Sox nation may think that their team is rebuilding or they are far off from competing, but do not believe that for a second. Boston’s organization has deep pockets and now they have emptied some cash and bad debts from their wallet. The Red Sox will reload again at some point. It is just a matter of when as opposed to if it will happen.