Boston offered Victor Martinez to Tampa Bay for Carl Crawford before the 2010 season, according to Tom Verducci of SI.com. Though the Rays were open to the deal, they told the Red Sox they’d have to pursue other trades to make the swap work. Tampa Bay’s secondary moves fell through, so Crawford and Martinez stayed put.
The Red Sox weren't the only AL East team with interest in Crawford, but they showed considerably more interest than the Yankees. Crawford told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that he doesn't think the Yankees were seriously interested in his services last winter when he hit free agency. “If the Yankees want somebody they go out and get them, don’t they?,” Crawford asked. Cliff Lee notwithstanding, he has a point.
Zack
Wow, thats pretty crazy, I wonder what the other deal was.
RedSoxDynasty
This doesnt make sense cuz who would have been the Sox catcher unless they had a FA or trade contingency plan! Still kinda ironic how things turned out after the fact!
notsureifsrs
mike cameron signed on december 14th, so this all must have taken place before then – likely during the winter meetings. that would have given them some time to acquire a stopgap catcher
The_Silver_Stacker
It wasn’t like TB was going to lock up V-Mart to an expensive contract as well. Certainly a head scratcher.
wolf9309
well it sounds like TB thought they might be able to flip him for someone else
kdawg89
There may have been some other players involved in the deal…Maybe Navarro or Shoppach??
PJaysW
This is not an example of irony.
RedSoxDynasty
Of course this is ironic! We still ended up essentially swapping Crawford for VMart as we don’t sign one unless we let the other go to Detroit! Hence, irony as we still got one while losing the other anyways!
0bsessions
That’s not irony, that’s an amusing coincidence. There is absolutely nothing ironic about it.
RedSoxDynasty
Alannis Morrissette agrees with me!
RedSoxDynasty
The sox pretended to want to trade for Crawford when in, in fact, they planned on signing him as a free agent all along! Isn’t it ironic, dont ya think?
The_Silver_Stacker
I imagine there are more of these “deals” that were offered by other teams around the league, but don’t get any attention since they never happened.
garylanglais
No way this would have been a 1-for-1 swap. CC was picked up with a $10m club option for ’10 season and VMart was picked up with a $7m club option for ’10. Rays were in there last year of contention and would not sacrifice a $3m payroll cut to give up a top 15 player in the league. I understand the other options the Rays had at OF were much better than the alternatives at C but still dont think it makes up the difference. Prospects would have to have been included.
andrewyf
Of course it wouldn’t have been a one-for-one swap. That’s why the Rays said no.
Green_Monster
That doesn’t make any sense, you said they were in contention and would not give up Crawford. But then you said they would need prospects. How would that help them if they were in contention?
hardcoreforhardcore
Slow news day, eh?
BlueSkyLA
You mean a story about a trade that didn’t happen over a year ago isn’t news?
BlueSkyLA
Meanwhile, in baseball news not involving Boston or New York…
Green_Monster
Meanwhile, Dodgers Sign Randy Keisler
wolf9309
you know this site doesn’t make the news right? They just report it. Because there’s a lot more media covering NY and Boston, there are a lot more stories about them.
BlueSkyLA
Nope, they just ignore or pass over much of the rest.
JohnKruksWaistline
…so…if Martinez for Crawford is one deal…what’s the other?
Shawn K
Bowden, Lowrie, Dusty Brown, and John Papelbon for Longoria and Carl Crawford?