Any team that even wants to get us to talk about Sale is going to have to do a lot of things they otherwise wouldn't be willing to do.

I believe it starts with having the offensive equivalent of Sale. We're talking someone who is established as a top offensive talent, young, and under control for many years. Here's the list: Stanton, McCutchen, Trout. Which honestly sounds crazy involving MVP players, but that's where I'd start the conversation. If we're going to be shut down (which is inevitable), step down to top prospects, or recently promoted players. Such as: Bryant and Schwarber.

 

If we can't agree with another team on these terms, it's not worth it. Keep Sale and attempt to patchwork assemble a team around him.

Not devalues - taking a bad contract helps us get more value out of Sale since no team will give full 100% value in prospects. Attaching a bad contract usually devalues a player - but the Sox return will be below value in prospects no matter what deal they make, so they'll have to scratch out other value in different ways.

And if they won't deal a top prospect, they don't get Sale.

And why would the Dodgers want Melky? Puig, Pederson, Schebler and VanSlyke are all better options than Melky. Plus the Dodgers are still stuck with Ethier's contract.

 

Yep, Melky would devalue Sale in a trade since the Dodgers already have an excess of outfielders.

 

I've said it before, not one team will give up Sale's value and therefore will require at least a three team deal in order to happen. With the cost of FA going up and up, more teams are clinging to their best prospects because they are more cost effective.