4 of 5 Red Sox suspects nabbed as dust settles on trade action

(NESN)
Eric D. Schabell
Contributing Writer

Now that the dust has settled on maybe one of the Red Sox most exciting closing days of the MLB trade deadline ever we wanted to take a look back at the results of our pre-deadline article "5 Red Sox suspects in trade deadline fire sale."

In this article we put the top 5 candidates for trade action together with an overview of the teams interested, what they might bring, and where possible why they wanted to be traded.

The results are in and we have scored four out of five with only one suspect left holding down the fort after all the rest drove out of Fenway Thursday afternoon towards their new homes in Baltimore, Saint Louis, Chicago, and Oakland.

At the start of the last week before the trade deadline Ben Cherington was quoted saying, "Anything we do between now and Thursday afternoon will be with a mind toward building as quickly as possible toward April of 2015," Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said. "That might mean doing very little, it might mean doing a bunch of stuff, it might be in-between. We're listening. We're gathering information as we have been for the last month or so. As we get closer to the deadline it starts to become more clear to what teams are the most motivated to add in different areas."

With that in mind, it looks like they have taken major steps to improve the Red Sox position going into the 2015 season, wouldn't you think?

The Red Sox are the first team in line to go from worst to first to worst in three consecutive seasons.



Here are the results of five trades and one suspect left standing in the rubble.

Felix Doubront (Cubs)

He was the first to go, early in the week to the Cubs for a player to be named later.

It was a foregone conclusion after last week he made comments in the press about how much it sucks to be in the bullpen instead of a starter.


It was also reported that the Cubs position was that this was the last chance that Felix Doubront would have to get his act together.

Warning has been issued in Chicago, we are just glad to see him go.

Jon Lester & Jonny Gomes (Athletics)

It was a shocker to see them both heading out the door and to Oakland no less, but done deal with time to spare.

They went for a great outfielder in Yoenis Cespedes and some change in draft picks.


The details will be releasing soon but this was a good deal for the Red Sox and it was sad to see them leave Fenway. It seems the Athletics are paying $650K of Cespedes' salary, but getting back $1.8 million from the Red Sox for Lester.

At least Lester got hugs from management on the way out of Fenway.


Before Gomes left he was seen in Fenway scooping up some dirt. Gomes gave us the thumbs up as he departed in his big red tank. Captain America over and out.


No matter how long you look at this picture, it just is hard to believe that we will get to see Lester on the mound this Saturday for the Athletics.


The tide has turned, they are gone and just a memory on the mound and in left field at Fenway.

Andrew Miller (Orioles)

Between all the other trades this one kept surfacing and then subsiding with the first hints pointing to the Tigers, Pirates, and Braves.

When that fell through in the last hour it looked like he might be staying, but at the last minute the deal came through that he was off to the Orioles for a left handed pitching prospect.


This was a painful loss for the Red Sox bullpen, with him dominating both left and right handed hitters all season.

Mike Carp (DFA?)

Last Saturday we got news that Mike Carp had requested a trade due to lack of playing time in his current role. He put in the request at the break and John Farrell confirmed that there have been discussions between him and Carp about his playing time.

This was the single suspect mentioned that did not get traded nor mentioned in any trade rumors all day.


What can he be thinking right now?


Though not traded yet, there was some chatter about him being DFA'd if not traded so time will tell.


There were a few more trades not dealt with in our article.

Stephen Drew to the Yankees.


John Lackey to the Cardinals.



The total spent on trades by the Red Sox was $3.4 million with money going to the Athletics, Cardinals, and Yankees.

What about the fans, how were they left feeling on the streets around Fenway with 48% (12/25) of the players on the 2013 World Series roster now on different teams as of this moment?



Post a comment or via twitter @ericschabell with your thoughts.

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