Red Sox/Dodgers Mega-Trade Nearly Complete

Ever since yesterday evening, the Red Sox and the Dodgers have been working toward a trade. Not just any trade, but a trade that would send 1B Adrian Gonzalez, OF Carl Crawford, RHP Josh Beckett and SS Nick Punto to the Dodgers in exchange for 1B James Loney and several prospects. At least one of the prospects that the Red Sox will obtain will be a top prospect. In order for the trade to go through, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett had to OK a trade due to their no-trade clauses. Surprisingly, both have Ok'ed the trade and the final details are being worked out.

What this tells me is that Red Sox management is weeding out the "anti- Bobby Valentine" players. Instead of siding with the players, the Red Sox are siding with their manager. By making this move, the Red Sox have instilled a sense of confidence in Bobby V and are showing that he is their guy. Earlier this month, there were rumors that several players got together and sent a text message to ownership stating their negative feelings toward Bobby Valentine. Supposedly, Adrian Gonzalez was on the fore-front of this controversy.

For the Red Sox, this is a HUGE salary dump and a way of telling Theo Epstein that his moves were not supported by ownership. When Crawford was signed, many people were scratching their heads as to why the Red Sox would throw so much money at Crawford. Turns out they did not support it all along and after Crawford had Tommy John surgery on Thursday, he had to deal with this trade.

• Josh Beckett is set to earn $15.75MM per season through 2014.
• Carl Crawford will earn $20MM in 2013, $20.25MM in 2014, $20.5MM in 2015, $20.75MM in 2016 and $21MM in 2017. Yikes.
• Adrian Gonzalez signed an extension with the Red Sox before last season that would have him earning $21MM per year through 2016 and a raise to bring his salary to $21.5MM in 2017-18.
• Nick Punto will earn $1.5M through next season.

For the Dodgers who have a ton of money after Magic Johnson bought the team, they want to win now and for years to come. They have taken on a lot of salary and hope to ignite a stretch run with this infusion of players.