NEWSLETTER
Wow. The Red Sox aren’t fooling around today.
Sox close to deal for Lackey with NL team. Either Cardinals or Dodgers
— Gordon Edes (@GordonEdes) July 31, 2014
I have mixed feelings on Lackey going to the Cardinals, in particular because of that cheap, $500K team option for 2015. Obviously that will be baked into the acquisition cost, so we’ll see how it all weighs out if and when a deal is done.
If he goes to the Dodgers … eh. I don’t have particularly strong feelings, other than I don’t like the Dodgers. Or the Cardinals. This whole post is unlikeable.
UPDATE (11:34am CT): Ken Rosenthal says Lackey is not going to the Dodgers. So … Cardinals, then?
UPDATE 2 (11:35am CT): And Jon Heyman says, yes, Lackey is going to the Cardinals. Can’t wait to see the return on this one. For the Cardinals, this would be their second pitcher in as many days.
UPDATE 3 (11:39am CT): I’m guessing the OF is someone like Randal Grichuk and not Oscar Taveras:
red sox expected to get ML ready OF and pitcher back for lackey from @STLCards. @GordonEdes 1st mentioned lackey trade
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2014
UPDATE 4 (11:48am CT): Man, I really don’t know what to make of this:
Sox get Kelly, Craig for Lackey
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) July 31, 2014
That’d be hot-and-cold starter Joe Kelly, and way-way-down-on-his-luck outfielder Allen Craig. The latter has a really team-friendly contract, but it won’t matter if he’s regressing like crazy. As for Kelly, I’ve never quite known what I think of him. Gonna take a moment to digest this one, if that’s the return.
UPDATE 5 (11:59am CT): Cardinals are getting some cash, too:
Red Sox are sending around $1.75M to the Cardinals. Final trade: John Lackey and ~$1.75M to St. Louis for Allen Craig and Joe Kelly.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2014
I’m going to let it marinate before I judge fully, but I don’t see this the way everyone else is immediately seeing it out there in the Twitterverse (as a huge win for the Sox). Lackey costs nothing next year, influences a pennant race this year, Craig is 30 and could simply be aging/regressing, and Kelly hasn’t clearly proven he’s more than a 4/5 in the bigs. This could be good for the Sox, but what am I missing? Why is this so obviously a huge haul for them?
