Thanks for the ring Ben Cherington, now hit the bricks

(Mark L. Baer/US Presswire)

Bill Foley (@Foles74)

Contributing Writer

Here’s a question for you.

If the Red Sox offered to pay half of their salary, do you think any team in baseball would trade for Pablo Sandoval and/or Hanley Ramirez right now?

Maybe you’d get one or two takers, but the Red Sox would probably also have to include a prospect in the deal.

Yet two players who can’t play defense at all are in the first year of multi-year contracts. Those are what you call bad signings by a general manager.

That is why the Red Sox should thank GM Ben Cherington for his part in winning the 2013 World Series before telling him to not let the door hit him on the butt on his way out for fielding a last-place team in his other three years on the job.

The 2015 Red Sox are a complete embarrassment. Jerry Remy wondered “is this rock bottom” as the Red Sox blew an 8-1 lead and lost 13-10 Friday night.

Here’s how to know if it is indeed rock bottom: If you’ve asked if this could be rock bottom more than five times, it is not rock bottom.

Asking if the Red Sox of 2015 have bottomed out is like a pilot, spinning uncontrollably straight down saying, “Well, there’s nowhere to go but up.”

While John Farrell seems to pull the wrong strings every night, Cherington has dealt the skipper a losing hand. It is the worst construction of a Red Sox team since Dan Duquette gave Kevin Kennedy seven designated hitters in 1996.

If someone would have told you that Dustin Pedroia would be having his best season in several years and Xander Boagerts would emerge into one of the best shortstops in the American League heading into the season, you would assume the Red Sox would be contenders.

Instead, they are not even pretenders right now because players like Sandoval have sucked the life out of the team.

Right now the Red Sox need a fire sale. With the exception of Eduardo Rodriguez, Blake Swihart, Brock Holt, Mookie Betts, Bogaerts and Pedroia, every and any member of the Red Sox should be on the trading block.

The team needs to start looking to the future because you can stick a fork in the 2015 Red Sox. They are done, and most of them don’t even seem to care.

Sending Cherington out the door is the first move. The last thing you want is a guy who built three last place teams in four seasons making the call for a fifth.

Thanks for the ring, Ben. Now beat it.