Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers To Complete A Blockbuster

Every now and then in Major League baseball there comes a trade that does not only effect the two teams that constituted the trade. The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are on the verge of making such a trade. In a trade that will become completed on Saturday, the Red Sox are sending approximately $250 million to the Dodgers in exchange for a package of current Major League players and Minor League prospects.

Here is the blueprint for the trade that will be approved by Major League Baseball comissioner Bud Selig on Saturday.

Los Angeles Dodgers Receive

• Adrian Gonzalez, First Baseman
• Josh Beckett, Starting Pitcher
• Carl Crawford, Left Fielder
• Nick Punto, Third Baseman

Boston Red Sox Receive

• Ruby De La Rosa, Starting Pitcher
• James Loney, First Baseman
• Allen Webster, RHP prospect
• Ivan De Jesus, Infielder
• Jerry Sands, Outfielder

There has seldom been a blockbuster trade to this magnitude to come to fruition before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, let alone, rarely happens if ever during the waiver trade period. This trade would seem to indicate that the Red Sox, who are 60 and 66 on the season, I likely headed in a direction that they have not been in for most of this past decade. The Red Sox are not in a complete rebuilding phase, rather, a transition phase. This phase began with the departures of Terry Francona and Theo Epstein from the Red Sox organization and is starting to expand to the Major League roster. Not only are the Red Sox clearing the big contracts from their roster, they appear to be ridding themselves of a specific group of players. That group of players consists of players that were all signed to lucrative contracts under the Theo Epstein regime in Boston. One would have to wonder if the Red Sox would be willing to listen on other “Epstein regime” players such as starting pitcher Jon Lester or center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. If so, I would imagine that Epstein will have one or two conversation with his former assistant Ben Cherington, who is now the general manager of the Red Sox.

A note on Allen Webster, the pitching prospect that is headed to the Boston Red Sox, that is the prospect that the Cubs were demanding in their trade negotiations with the Dodgers over former Cubs’ starting pitcher Ryan Dempster. As it turns, for the Dodgers, they made the smart move–though I’m not sure taking on over $250 million in contracts is necessarily smart–in not including Webster in a potential package for Dempster and using the pitching prospect to land Gonzalez in addition to Beckett, the injured Crawford, and Punto.