The last time
Ben Cherington rolled the dice with a crappy Red Sox team, he gained a half a billion dollars, two prized pitching prospects and an eventual World Series championship. So, what could
possibly deter him from being bold again this year? He's already pared one veteran from the roster in
Jake Peavy (and gotten two
pretty good pitching prospects back) and he is signalling a willingness to do a wholesale restructuring of this woeful team. From offering up
both Jon Lester and
John Lackey in trades (as well as his best bullpen lefty in
Andrew Miller), BenCher could be setting the stage for something even
bigger. Very few players appear safe from this year's purge—only
David Ortiz,
Dustin Pedroia,
Xander Bogaerts,
Shane Victorino,
Mike Napoli and
maybe Clay Buchholz, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Brock Holt,
Daniel Nava and
Christian Vazquez. In addition to Lackey and Lester, possible other departures are:
Jonny Gomes,
Mike Carp,
Stephen Drew,
Koji Uehara,
Edward Mujica (if anyone would take him) and
David Ross. And, who knows, maybe there's a still
Giancarlo Stanton deal to be made. Our advice to Cherington is simple:
BE BOLD AGAIN!
