BLOCKBUSTER

“Everytime I think I'm out they pull me back in…”

In professional sports, there are those rare trades that are franchise-changing and then there are those that can be legitimately called “Blockbusters”. On Friday, August 24^th, the Red Sox traded Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for James Loney and four prospects. In one fell swoop, the Sox shed themselves of $260 million in salary commitments and obtained a first baseman and four very good prospects but most importantly tremendously payroll flexibility moving forward.

It was a bold move by the general manager and will be his signature move, for better or worse. This is the baseball equivalent of Michael Corleone settling all family business at the end of “The Godfather.” It is easily the most historic transaction in which the Red Sox have been involved since the sale of Babe Ruth’s contract to the Yankees in 1920. 

Why now? Obviously, the team’s dreadful performance this year had a lot to do with it. The team was 20 games under .500 since last September and it was time for a change. It was a team in decline since winning the World Series five years ago (has it been that long?). While we’ll never know the thought process that went on behind the curtain there had to be a lot of frustration on the part of ownership and management to see an overloaded payroll translate into such miserable underperformance. It was a tacit admission by ownership that Theo’s model of franchise construction no longer worked under the terms of the new CBA. The team was not competitive this year and the team no longer wanted to be saddled with fat contracts as these players began to age. A new direction was needed.

If the intent was to shed unwanted bodies and then return to the ways of bloated payrolls, then this move was just a sham payroll dump. But if this move signals a new way of constructing a team with an emphasis on building through the draft and fielding a team largely comprised of homegrown players then the Sox will be big winners moving forward. They now have the flexibility to add a lot of pieces to the club, but management has to be smart about the manner in which they spend. Hopefully the days of seven-year contracts are a thing of the past.

The key to the trade was Adrian Gonzalez. He’s been a superstar player and largely performed according to form for the Red Sox. He appears to be a great guy and a devout Christian. While he claimed to love playing in Boston, he has made comments that he dreaded all of the day-to-day drama associated with playing in Boston. He’s better off in his native Southern California where he won’t have to play under such constraints. All he’ll now have to concern himself with is playing the game. Not many players can withstand all of the pressures associated with wearing the Red Sox uniform.

If the Dodgers wanted to obtain Gonzalez then the Sox demanded that Beckett and Crawford had to be thrown into the deal as well. For Crawford, a hard worker and a great guy, it simply never worked out in Boston. It was simply a misfit of a round peg trying to fit into a square hole. He’ll now get a chance to recover over the winter and take over in Dodger Stadium’s spacious outfield next year where his speed and range will be a perfect fit. Beckett simply wore out his welcome in Boston and it was time to go. He readily waived his 10/5 rights to get out of a hopeless situation. All four players should do well in LA, but Sox fans should feel no seller’s remorse because (no matter how well these players perform) it wasn’t going to happen in Boston. That the Sox are only kicking in $10-12 million and received an everyday player in Loney and four of the Dodgers’ top prospects is a pretty nice haul. The Dodgers appear to have been driven by a certain degree of desperation.

Why? The Dodgers’ new owners (flush with cash to spend) wanted to make a big splash heading into the stretch drive of the season and they’re in a chase to catch the Giants in the NL West. In the short term, they’re the winners in this deal. Gonzalez will be a fabulous player for the Dodgers and, who knows, maybe Beckett will be rejuvenated by pitching in the National League. As far as the Red Sox are concerned, good luck to all the parties involved.

A new era begins for the Red Sox, and we’ll have to see how it all works out in 2013.