When the Los Angeles Dodgers scratched James Loney from Friday night’s lineup and the Boston Red Sox did the same with Adrian Gonzalez, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the big blockbuster trade went down between the two teams. After a long day of hype and discussions, it appears the trade is all but complete between both parties.
August 24, 2012 7:05 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
August 24, 2012 6:43 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
With the trade in place, the Dodgers will acquire Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto while the Red Sox received Allen Webster, James Loney, Jerry Sands, Ivan De Jesus, and Rubby De La Rosas and salary relief. This may seem like a bizarre trade on paper, but in reality–this deal actually works out well for both parties.
After numerous key acquisitions before the trade deadline that included trades for Shane Victorino (Philadelphia Phillies) and Hanley Ramirez (Miami Marlins), the Dodgers added even more talent to their powerful lineup that already consisted of Matt Kemp and Andre Eithier with the addition of these former Red Sox players
From Boston’s perspective, this was simply one of those moves they felt needed to happen from a financial perspective. There’s no telling what to expect from Crawford (finishing up the second year of a hefty $142 million deal) heading into next season after the left fielder recently had Tommy John surgery and while Gonzalez–who is scheduled to earn $127 million over the next six years) is batting .300 on the year, it’s safe to say the first baseman is no longer the big home-run hitter he looked like a few years ago.
Take all of this into consideration along with the fact that Beckett is scheduled to make $31.5 million over the next two seasons after 2012–the Red Sox knew they may not receive another opportunity like this to clear up their salary cap and they had to make the deal with the Dodgers now.
As for Los Angeles–well, they appear to be stacked enough to give the San Francisco Giants a run for their money in the NL West. The Giants may be three games back heading into the weekend, but there’s still plenty of baseball left for the Dodgers to overtake them in the division–especially after all of the new acquisitions from Friday.
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