Filed under: Boston Red Sox
I think Mark Shapiro has a point. After rumors of a six player deal that would send center fielder Coco Crisp to the Red Sox leaked to the press as an almost done deal, Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro expressed his discontent with the earlier announcement. After three grueling days of no official announcement and more rumors surrounding the deal than a Jose Canseco memoir, I am thinking that I probably agree with him. Allegedly the leak was purposefully spread to put pressure on the Indians to pull the trigger on said trade. However, if you ask me it is just driving everyone batty. Its been ‘Coco’ this and ‘6 players’ that. Enough already. Can’t we just skip to the part were we take Coco’s picture holding up a Sox jersey?
The first word on the street was that the Crisp deal, which included set-up man David Riske and back-up catcher Josh Bard in exchange for prized third-base prospect Andy Marte, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota, and catcher Kelly Shoppach, was as good as done. However after Mota presumably failed his physical, Cleveland lost interest and claimed they would take Mota if the Sox added a player to “sweeten the pot”. If you ask my mom though, she would say that anything involving Coco Crisp is sweet enough, although that’s neither here nor there. The point was that the Indians were hinting that the Red Sox should throw in Manny Delcarmen on top of the other three. The latest states that the Indians then gave the Boston Front Office until today to come up with their best offer, or else the Indians would presumably walk.
Now I am no Theo Epstein, but I would say that two of our top five prospects for a center fielder who has possibly reached his plateau in terms of potential is a bit of a stretch. It seems the Indians are perhaps taking advantage of our lack of a center fielder by dangling Crisp in hopes of milking(no pun intended) Theo & Co. into a suckers deal. If this were Fantasy Baseball I would veto this as soon as it was posted.
Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE to have Coco Crisp as my center fielder on opening day. Even if the thought of giving up Marte was slightly uncomfortable I still would have done that deal. However adding one of our highly touted pitching prospects put this over the top. There have been additional whispers that have hinted that the Reds or Phillies could possibly get involved. Specifically, something along the lines of right-hander Matt Clement being sent to Philly, the Phillies sending an outfielder to Cleveland, and Cleveland sending Crisp here to Boston or even a possible Clement to Cincinnati for outfielder Austin Kearns straight up. Since it looks like we are trying to get rid of Clement like he’s a venereal disease and he probably won’t be on the midsummer roster anyways, I think that deal settles a little better.
Even if this entire Crisp deal falls through it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Firstly, it would show that Theo is back and is not going to get hustled just because we might have to start Adam Stern as our centerfielder on opening day. Secondly, even if we did enter the season with the centerfield status quo we would still have seven starting pitchers including a malcontent David Wells and a Matt Clement that has probably already put his house on the market.
I have faith that Theo & Co. will probably counter with a more appropriate deal by tonight. And since so much has been invested in this already, my hope would be that they would finalize a fair trade rather than watch it fall through. Although in all honesty, who knows what tomorrows status of this deal is going to be. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it involved Tom Carons, Wally the Green Monster, a 52nd round draft pick, and a player to be named later. I keep telling myself that I am going to ignore the rumors and just sit back until the whole things unfolds.
Yeah right. I wish I had that kind of will power.
theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com
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