RSSAsk Daily: Red Sox Trade Coco
Dec 02
Question: So the Red Sox traded Coco to KC for a reliever, possibly a setup man. What team benefits more from this trade and from the Sox’s perspective do you think this was a wise trade?
If the Red Sox benefit even a little from the trade, you’d always have to give them the edge in terms of benefiting more than the Royals because the Royals rearrange pieces on a losing chess board. Until they overhaul their entire operation, one would be wasting time to spend even two sentences
evaluating minor improvements to their team, which -- crap! -- I just did.
Anyway, I would think about the answer to the question of benefit from the Sox perspective in two ways -- how much does the exchange of talent impact the construction and performance of the pitching staff and how does the exchange of talent impact the construction and performance of the outfield. As an optimist, here’s how I see it: If Ramirez comes in and fills the role of tandem setup man with Okajima effectively, that maintains a strength in the bullpen that every team needs and the Red Sox possessed only during the final month of the season with Masterson in the pen. That’s helpful for depth, but where it could turn really positive is if that allows the Sox to comfortably move Masterson back into the rotation, enhancing an already impressive batch of young starters. Young arms are the backbone of a long-term contending team.
As for the outfield, the optimistic assessment is that the removal of Crisp, while decreasing the caliber of defensive play somewhat, frees up Jacoby Ellsbury to stop looking over his shoulder as Crisp tries to take his playing time and simply focus all of his emotional energy on being the best leadoff hitter and center fielder he can be. And in that Crisp was a fantastic defender, but a middling .270 hitter with no power, the loss of him as a fourth outfielder isn’t too much of a loss. It opens up the
opportunity for the Sox to go out and find a fourth outfielder that offers some of the skills missing from the Sox bench.
If I’m right about some or all of that, it’s a strategic move that, in itself isn’t all that fascinating, but as it moves the pieces on the roster, the Crisp-Ramirez trade has the possibility of being a catalyst for some genuine improvement.
