July 31, 201411 yr For Cespedes. Gomes going west too. Now that is a blockbuster Wow. Did not see that coming. Edited July 31, 201411 yr by Buehrle>Wood
July 31, 201411 yr I'm shocked that they would part with Cespedes. Overrated, yes, but still the fourth highest WAR among position players on their team this year. Are they going to play Gomes every day in OAK?
July 31, 201411 yr Cespedes is a free agent after 2015. So they're trading two months of Lester (and post-season) for 8 months of Cespedes. The bigger question is what happens if Lester doesn't come back to Boston? They're already going to have issues with Lackey and his $500K contract, and they've also dealt Doubront and Peavy. Who is their rotation going to be? Rubby and Workman? Buchholz has had a terrible season. It's a huge gamble IF IF IF Boston can't turn around the talent on that roster again in the next 8 months. Edited July 31, 201411 yr by caulfield12
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 07:53 AM) Cespedes for a rental? Good job BoSox. Cespedes is just a slightly longer-term rental, like David Price.
July 31, 201411 yr Wow is all..lol darn well there goes trying to sign cespedes , he'll be in boston for a while. Kirkjan(?) was saying on espn that Oakland wasn't that happy with cespedes style of play and his plate discipline.
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 08:59 AM) Red Sox get a competitive balance draft pick too That's not insignificant
July 31, 201411 yr Lester Gray Kazmir Samardzija Now that's a potential WS winning rotation Edited the topic title since it's official now
July 31, 201411 yr How the Red Sox rebuild will be the most fascinating aspect of this. If they want outfielders — Nelson Cruz, Melky Cabrera, Colby Rasmus, Nick Markakis, Alex Rios, and Cuban Yasmani Tomas are free agents. There’s Chase Headley, Hanley Ramirez, and Pablo Sandoval for infielders. As for pitchers, Jason Hammel, Ervin Santana, James Shields, Masterson, and Jorge De La Rosa will be out there. None of them as good as Lester — except for Max Scherzer — who is looking for a six- or seven-year deal that could get into the $175 million range. Shields is a bulldog, and he likely could be had on a four-year deal. The trade market for pitchers is tough. The Phillies may eventually move Hamels and Cliff Lee. Ian Kennedy also could be had. Old standbys Bartolo Colon and A.J. Burnett will be out there. Mark Mulder will attempt his second comeback. It really looks like shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is going somewhere if he tells the Rockies he no longer wants to play in Colorado, and we hear Boston and New York would be preferred destinations. The Sox’ rebuild will be different than it was after 2012 because there will be more reliance on their prospects. After 2012, they didn’t have enough of them, so they signed seven free agents and hit on all of them to win their third championship in 10 years. So the philosophy has changed. You’ll only see over-30 guys if they sign Victorino/Napoli types, good players who will accept short contracts. It creates a lot of turnover, but it’s also good business. Lester is Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill right now. The polls overwhelmingly favor the Red Sox keeping him. The likelihood is he’s going to be traded for a bunch of prospects, which leaves the Red Sox with Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Brandon Workman, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo, Matt Barnes, Brian Johnson, and Henry Owens as available pitchers. The Red Sox will field a team in 2015, just like they did in 2013. And that turned out pretty well. www.bostonglobe.com
July 31, 201411 yr This is a good trade. Both teams have a decent chance of walking away from it as the "winner." Cespedes being a big name is kind of a red herring
July 31, 201411 yr It's an interesting twist on the biggest criticism of Beane, not having enough bats/offense in the post-season. He's doubling down on having enough dominant pitching (see Atlanta Braves 1991-2005) to compensate for some of the gaps offensively...and also gambling that Gomes will be reinvigorated by playing with a team in a pennant race. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Gomes will put up better numbers than Cespedes for the final two months of the season. 1. Lester 2. Samardzija 3. Gray 4. Chavez 5. Kazmir 6. Hammel 7. Millone That's the best pitching depth in the majors. It's also a possibility he'll trade one of those pitchers as well. Edited July 31, 201411 yr by caulfield12
July 31, 201411 yr I wonder if Ortiz will be put on the market too. Boston seems to be doing some house cleaning and clearly focusing on next years draft.
July 31, 201411 yr Miller and Lackey might both be gone....but Lackey has that weird contract where he's only getting $500,000 for one season, signed when his career was falling apart. They're looking to deal Carp and possibly Napoli and Victorino. Bradley Jr. (not the prettiest OPS but awesome defense), Middlebrooks (if he ever puts it together), Bogaerts and their young catcher should be the core, along with Pedroia. Don't see Ortiz or Pedroia going anywhere, and probably not Napoli, either. Uehara might be traded as well. That would bring a nice piece (or two) back...to put one of the best closers in the game on the trading block a year after winning the World Series.
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 06:56 AM) Cespedes is a free agent after 2015. So they're trading two months of Lester (and post-season) for 8 months of Cespedes. The bigger question is what happens if Lester doesn't come back to Boston? They're already going to have issues with Lackey and his $500K contract, and they've also dealt Doubront and Peavy. Who is their rotation going to be? Rubby and Workman? Buchholz has had a terrible season. It's a huge gamble IF IF IF Boston can't turn around the talent on that roster again in the next 8 months. They will resign Cespedes long term this off-season and then bring back Lester.
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 09:37 AM) I wonder if Ortiz will be put on the market too. Boston seems to be doing some house cleaning and clearly focusing on next years draft. No way. His 2015 salary isn't awful and he has two team-friendly options for 2016 & 2017. Trading for Cespedes shows they care about winning in 2015, not to mention Ortiz is the Derek Jeter of Boston, you can't just trade him that easily.
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 09:48 AM) No way. His 2015 salary isn't awful and he has two team-friendly options for 2016 & 2017. Trading for Cespedes shows they care about winning in 2015, not to mention Ortiz is the Derek Jeter of Boston, you can't just trade him that easily. I get what you're saying but Boston will need a lot more help than Cespedes and resigning Lester to compete in 2015.
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 08:46 AM) They will resign Cespedes long term this off-season and then bring back Lester. For $130-150 million? And they're going to give Cespedes a huge contract when he's getting close to 30 as well? From everything you read about Boston and how they're planning to operate in the future, both fly directly in the face of that...giving 4-6 year contracts for veterans on or close to the wrong side of 30. Didn't Epstein already go down that road too many times before for them to have learned the consequences with the likes of Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Lackey, Dice-K, etc.??? If nothing else, the 7 free agents they added before 2013 taught them that 1-2 year deals (maybe with an option) are much better than 4-8. Edited July 31, 201411 yr by caulfield12
July 31, 201411 yr QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 07:54 AM) For $130-150 million? And they're going to give Cespedes a huge contract when he's getting close to 30 as well? From everything you read about Boston and how they're planning to operate in the future, both fly directly in the face of that...giving 4-6 year contracts for veterans on or close to the wrong side of 30. Didn't Epstein already go down that road too many times before for them to have learned the consequences with the likes of Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, JD Drew, Lackey, Dice-K, etc.??? If nothing else, the 7 free agents they added before 2013 taught them that 1-2 year deals (maybe with an option) are much better than 4-8. Well if that is the case, then they'll flip Cespedes after he puts up some monster inflated numbers.
July 31, 201411 yr Now this was a trade I did not expect. Billy Beane is going all out. Oakland's probably gonna play a platoon of Reddick and Gomes with Gentry and Crisp as their regular OFers.
July 31, 201411 yr How many times have we said players like Swisher and Dunn and name another random guy (Nelson Cruz, Yasmani Tomas, Kendrys Morales, Rasmus, Markakis, Victor Martinez, etc.) would put up huge numbers at USCF? It's only happened with Carlos Quentin and Abreu, and even CQ had some years where he hit much better on the road than at home, surprisingly. Since that infusion of power with Dye/AJ/Thome in the mid 2000's to replace Lee/Thomas/Valentin, we have failed miserably at producing power hitters. Our two best (and most improved) hitters this year are Eaton and Conor, far from your typical power guys. You could add Alexei Ramirez to that list as well. Viciedo's been a disaster recently, and we have no clue what we're going to get out of Avisail Garcia coming off his injury. Edited July 31, 201411 yr by caulfield12
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