Joe Kelly first found out that John Lackey was traded to the Cardinals on Twitter and, 15 minutes later, learned he was part of the package heading to the Red Sox in return, writes Rob Harms of the Boston Globe.  “Hectic,” Kelly said of the deadline’s personal impact on him. “It’s something that happens in baseball, and, like I said, it could happen to anyone. When I got the news I was definitely shocked and surprised, but I found out it was Boston, and I figured it was one great baseball town to another. So definitely looking forward to it.”  More out of the AL East..
- Rays executive VP Andrew Friedman says that if he waited until the winter to deal David Price, the return would have been somewhere between “a good bit less to dramatically less,” writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  While some see their haul for the ace pitcher as light, Topkin says that in reality, they were pleased to get as much as they did.
- There’s no reason for Red Sox GM Ben Cherington to stop wheeling and dealing now, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. The Red Sox already have shipped out 11 of the 25 players who were on their World Series roster only nine months ago, but Lauber is dreaming big and thinking of names like Giancarlo Stanton and Chris Sale.
- Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal breaks down the questions the Red Sox still need to answer in the aftermath of their recent roster maneuvers.
- The Yankees are helping Martin Prado through his “strange” transition to a new team and new position, writes Brendan Kuty of the Star-Ledger. Â Prado hadn’t taken a single practice fly ball in right field this season even though that’s his new spot. The veteran mostly played third base and left field while with the Braves and Diamondbacks.
- While he knows that he has “very big” shoes to fill, Drew Smyly is excited to be a member of the Rays, Topkin writes.
- Jim Johnson is now free to sign with any club after his release by the A’s Friday. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes the Orioles maintain a high level of interest in signing their former closer to a minor league deal, but are not the only team pursuing the right-hander.
- Johnson will throw a side session for the Orioles tomorrow in Sarasota in front of rehab pitching coordinator Scott McGregor, tweets Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.
Edward Creech contributed to this post.
Sale? Nope.
Bad return for Price. Almost feel like he was dealt out of desperation with the clock ticking and Friedman just grabbed whatever he could get. As for the Red Sox getting Stanton and Sale is a pipe dream. Sale alone will require most of the Red Sox prospects and Stanton wont be cheap either. Don’t see the Red Sox contending for 2 years unless they make big slashes with FAs.
people like yourself are overlooking the prospect in the deal, who has been climbing the ranks and will surprise people when he becomes a MLB SS in a couple years.
Climbing the ranks,but still only 18. Got a long way to go before he is even in consideration to make the majors. He could very well surprise people, but that, like with most prospects, is if he even makes the majors.
Smyly would probably end up as a #3/#4 with a long shot as a #2. So far that 4.09 FIP looks pretty bad but could get better since he’s still young.
Franklin has been really since he came up. He’s very young but very hard to see him become anything but a mediocre to (at best the low end) average player.
Adames is the most interesting piece of the deal. Relatively high ceiling but still raw by most people. But he’s not even in the to 10 prospects in the Tiger’s system.
Yeah, Friedman did bad with this trade. Price could have commanded a big haul if traded earlier but Friedman decided to play the waiting game. Trading Price in the offseason would have probably given you a much better return.
How do you not see them contending? Cherington did a pretty good job at fixing the lineup at the deadline, and we have the farm to trade for a starter. Look at Latos, Leake, Gallardo, Gee, or plenty of other trade options to acquire a mid rotation guy if you don’t want to get an ace, and all the money in the world to sign an ace through FA.. They will be fine
The fact that they traded their ace pitcher Lester and Lackey, the combined OF is hitting around the Mendoza line, the guy at 3rd base is due for a big regression a la Nava, their top prospect at SS isn’t doing as well as they thought he will (he isn’t doing any better than league average), their guy at 2nd base is playing poorly by his standards, their DH seems to be have lost his magic, probably losing their closer to FA and no one to man the catcher position tells they won’t be fine and dandy next year and they have as many holes as the Yankees to fill.
Also, if you have actually read my entire post you will see I talked about FA signings, rendering your post moot.
Forgot about Cespedes. Ok so they do have one guy in the OF that can hit but only for the 2015 year.
Then we agree on 1 point, but they should show signs of life offensively, Middlebrooks aside, JBJ has started to hit and aside from a terrible slump for Bogaertz he would be hitting .290ish, his defense is the real issue… they can compete next year
I completely agree. Price was a huge ripoff. Also Red Sox sports writers and a lot of fans just have this sense of entitlement and they can get just about whatever they want for whomever and everyone wants to be on their team and its the best city on the planet.
Tanaka has been cleared to throw on monday!
The Sox aren’t getting Sale but what about Cueto? He’s a FA after next season and they could offer him a 6 year deal starting with a substantial raise next year. That contract would take him through his age 34 season (same as Lester’s 4 year offer would have), so it wouldn’t necessarily stray from their new organizational approach.
Two things are obvious. Smart GM’s value young cheap left handed starters with big upsides like Smyly and Ray much more than fans do. Smart GM’s don’t value very expensive excellent pitchers about to enter free agency like Price and Fister as much as fans do.
Both the GM’s who were “ripped off” have outstanding track records and said they got the best deal that was offered.