The Red Sox have seemingly raised the white flag on this season by trading big name players Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, and Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It has been a rough season for Boston with lots of rumors of rifts between players and new manager Bobby Valentine. The Red Sox currently find themselves 13.5 games behind the first place Yankees in the AL East, nine games behind in the wild-card standings, and six games under .500.
For the Dodgers it has been a much happier story this season compared to last. After being bankrupt and taken over by Major League Baseball, the Dodgers were purchased this season by a group headed by Magic Johnson. With the new ownership the Dodgers have gone from the bottom of the standings to three games behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West and one game out in the wild-card.
The addition of Beckett, Crawford, and Gonzalez adds to a string of All-Star players that were already acquired by the Dodgers right before the trading deadline. Those three join shortstop Hanley Ramirez and outfielder Shane Victorino to make a starting lineup of players half of whom have appeared in at least one All-Star game.
Along with the three big stars, the Dodgers also acquired infielder Nick Punto and $11 million. In return the Red Sox received first baseman James Loney, pitcher Allen Webster, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr., and two players to be named later.
Despite sending the Dodgers $11 million the move is being seen as a cost cutter for the Red Sox who are estimated to be saving $250 million between now and 2018. Meanwhile, the Dodgers completed this trade just in time as all players must be on a team’s roster by Aug. 31 in order to be eligible for the post season.
“While I agree this season is a lost cause, I’m sad to see some of my favorite players going across the country,” said Heather Peterson, a Boston resident and Red Sox fan.
While Red Sox fans are feeling sad for their loss of talent, Dodgers fans seem ecstatic.
“By adding these three big stars I think it will be just the charge the team needs to make a deep run into the playoffs. I can’t wait to watch and find out,” said Joshua Lavallee a California resident and Dodgers fan.
Beckett was once beloved by Red Sox fans after being a key member of a starting staff that won the World Series in 2007. After the Red Sox went 7-20 last September and were eliminated from the playoffs on the final day of the regular season, rumors about Beckett’s behavior started to alienate him from Red Sox fans. His 5-11 record and 5.23 ERA this season has not helped matters.
Gonzalez who was due $127 through 2018 and Crawford who was due $ 102.5 million over the next five seasons are both said to have underachieved while they were with the Red Sox.
“I definitely won’t miss Carl [Crawford],” said Ashley Riley a self proclaimed die-hard Red Sox fan. “He was always hurt and even when he did play he did nothing on the field for us. Hopefully some of these guys we got from the Dodgers will help improve the team going forward.”
While the Red Sox have given up on this season, by freeing up a quarter of a billion dollars they will certainly be going after big talent in the future in order to try and recapture the success they had in the last decade. Meanwhile, the Dodgers have aligned themselves with a ton of talent and should be an interesting team to watch going forward.