According to a Fox Sports report the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox are in the final stages of a 9 player deal that will see Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto leave Boston for L.A. The Dodgers will send their top pitching prospect Allen Webster, first baseman James Loney, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr., right-hander Rubby De La Rosa and outfielder Jerry Sands.
The deal represents the Red Sox waiving the proverbial white flag on their playoff chase as they sit 15.5 games out of first place in their division and 8.5 in the wildcard standings.
For the Dodgers they hope this moves place them in position to chase down division San Francisco Giants who currently hold a 3 game lead, while they only 1.5 out of the final wildcard spot.
The Red Sox who have fought turmoil going back to their collapse last season which resulted in the firing of manager Terry Francona, thought the bringing in of a new manager would clear the bad vibes. However, the Red Sox just never found their rhythm and havent been more than 5 games above the .500 mark since July 1st and haven’t been .500 since August 6th.
The Red Sox will now go into next season with plenty of money to spend with $250 million they save from shipping off Gonzales (owed $109.3 million through 2017), Crawford ($106.8 million through 2017), and Beckett ($34 million through 2014) off their books.
The Dodgers who are in the middle of a pennant race and under new management are going all in for their chance at a title since 1998. While their players they’re receiving wore out their welcome in Boston, coming to a locker room with solid leadership and in the middle a playoff race they should have no problem falling in line for the time being. The addition of Gonzales adds another bat to a lineup that already had no problem scoring, and if Beckett can return to form from a few years ago, the Dodgers have as good a chance as anybody in the National League to make a run at the conference title.
The one thing Red Sox management could learn from this, perhaps before firing your manager, and siding with the players who showed a lack of effort and passion for their manager, survey the situation and think about who you align you alliances with. We see now with Bobby Valentine at the helm, that he couldn’t reach this team and the clubhouse was overrun with players who were undermining Franconas’ power.
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