Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Rumored trade: Boston sends Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to Los Angeles for James Loney, Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, Ivan De Jesus and Jerry Sands. Which team(s) make themselves better off with this trade?

Rumored trade: Boston sends Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to Los Angeles for James Loney, Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, Ivan De Jesus and Jerry Sands. Which team(s) make themselves better off with this trade?

Both teams	46 (37.70%)
Dodgers only	32 (26.23%)
Red Sox only	32 (26.23%)
Neither team	12 (9.84%)

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122 votes | 12 featured comments

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Richard S.S. - Saturday, August 25 2012 @ 07:19 AM EDT (#262614) #

What I find most interesting about Boston's (reported) trade (salary dump) is who will be the next ones to leave. Jon Lester and Dustin Pedroia could be an interesting pieces to acquire, but you can't tell how deep the purge is going to be, or who will be leaving. I don't even know if A.A. would be interested.

greenfrog - Saturday, August 25 2012 @ 03:03 PM EDT (#262621) #

I don't know much about the prospects headed to Boston, but the trade seems promising for the Red Sox. They have a decent farm system and a large budget. I expect them to be very good again, but it might take a while, especially now that the option of spending big on IFAs like Chapman, Cespedes and Soler is no longer an option. Interesting that both the Cubs under Epstein and the Sox under Cherington are now in full-blown rebuild mode. I guess it's the trendy thing to do.

The trade could work out OK for the Dodgers in the short-term, too.

scottt - Saturday, August 25 2012 @ 09:35 PM EDT (#262632) #

To me, it just illustrates once again that even if you overpay on the free agent market, there will always be someone willing to take your overpayed players off your hands.

electric carrot - Saturday, August 25 2012 @ 09:37 PM EDT (#262633) #

Mega win for the Sox. None of these contracts are going to look good in two years and they don't look great now. LA just loaded their boat up with a bunch of lead.

Richard S.S. - Sunday, August 26 2012 @ 04:32 AM EDT (#262638) #

Adrian Gonzales' stats http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzaad01.shtml for those who can't get there themselves, show he played great in San Deigo's pitcher's park for 5 years. I expect him to return to form in L.A. and have a good career there - it's called going home. He's signed through 2018.

Since about forever, A.L. pitchers have usually been successful when moving to the N.L., but not usually vice versa. Josh Beckett will be effective for the duration of his contract. You can't have enough MLB quailty pitching. He's signed through 2014.

Punto is Punto and he does what he does for $1.5 MM / year. He's only signed through 2013.

Carl Crawford was snake-bit his time in Boston, and stuck in front of that green piece of crap (they were too cheap to buy the piece behind the wall in day one of building it - as rumor has it, way back when). He has Speed, he gives good Defense and hits well but not a lot of HR. That shouldn't go away.

Incidentally, Boston is said to have sent along $12.5 MM, $11.0 MM covers this years salaries, the remaining $1.5 MM is for ...

greenfrog - Sunday, August 26 2012 @ 02:08 PM EDT (#262661) #

It does sound like poor negotiation on the part of the Dodgers' FO. Gonzalez and Beckett for the prospects, fine. Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford for Sands, De Jesus Jr. and Loney, fine (crazy, but fine).

But giving up De La Rosa and Webster *and* taking on Crawford seems just plain crazy.

It still could work out for the Dodgers in the short term, but I agree with electriccarrot about how this is going to look in a couple of years.

Richard S.S. - Sunday, August 26 2012 @ 08:20 PM EDT (#262683) #

In two years,unless re-signed, Punto is one year gone and Beckett is freshly gone. L.A. may or may not be back-to-back World Series winners (if WS 1 or 2 - contracts won't matter), but they should be in the Postseason both years. In Baseball, now matters, tomorrow not so much, beyond that is too far away. L.A. had James Loney for most of 7 years at 1B. Adrain Gonzales will be a significant upgrade at this position for his entire time in L.A. As for Carl Crawford's value, the Dodger outfield is usually Kemp, Ethier and someone named who. Crawford will do well in L.A., better than pessimists think, but worse than optimists think. I think that's an upgrade.

bpoz - Monday, August 27 2012 @ 09:37 AM EDT (#262693) #

I voted Boston as winning.

Both teams are rich in fan base & $. Boston had to change their chemistry, Beckett was not performing as an ace/#2 and Crawford has had 2 seasons of injury. Crawford spent a lot of DL time in TB if I recall. I believe Miggy can now go to Boston. A Webster looks promising, elite prospect.

LAD has stars, now they have more. Mattingly should get them to perform, if so then these are pieces that can get you over the top.

Ryan Day - Monday, August 27 2012 @ 01:04 PM EDT (#262701) #

Crawford spent a lot of DL time in TB if I recall.

Not really. Since he became a full-time player in 2003, he's played 151, 152, 156, 151, 143, 109, 156, and 154 games. He's not Cal Ripken, but he didn't have any significant health problems before he went to Boston.

Lylemcr - Tuesday, August 28 2012 @ 11:24 AM EDT (#262739) #

The problem in Boston is that they are going to turn around and spend a bunch of money this offseason on bad contracts. I think this could explode free agent prices in the off season. It is going to be a good year for Josh Hamilton....

Trades are going to be the only way to get players this offseason..

greenfrog - Tuesday, August 28 2012 @ 05:26 PM EDT (#262752) #

Lylemcr, I doubt it. I imagine the front office has learned its lesson from recent debacles (Drew, Dice-K, Lackey, Crawford). Cherington has made some good low-key moves so far. I expect a bit more restraint going forward (at least in the short term while they retool).

Richard S.S. - Thursday, August 30 2012 @ 12:08 AM EDT (#262843) #

Matsuzaka is a Free Agent this offseason while Lackey still has 2 years $30.5 MM left on his contract. And that covers the last of the "mistakes" Cherington has to deal with. He now has a blank slate to make his own mistakes.

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