Red Sox Fans, Prepare Yourselves For A Huge Offseason

The mega-contracts of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett come off the Red Sox’ books afterbeing traded to the Dodgers today, ushering in a new era of the Red Sox. Finally, these huge contracts are gone; not only does this remove the clubhouse cancer of Josh Beckett, but it also gives the Red Sox tremendous payroll flexibility for the 2012-2013 offseason and beyond. The Red Sox will be able to abandon their recent low-risk high-reward moves and go for broke on the free agent market.

The Red Sox’ pitching staff has put together a 4.33 ERA, good for 23rd in the league in 2012. For this team to contend next year and in the future, that needs to improve and the Red Sox need to acquire some quality starting pitching. The big name on the market this offseason will be Zack Greinke– the former Royals and Brewers ace that was traded to the Angels this July. Overall this season, Greinke’s numbers look strong at 11-5 with a 3.87 ERA, but since being traded to Los Angeles he is 2-2 with a 5.22 ERA. This is strange that he’s had trouble re-adjusting to the American League despite spending seven years in Kansas City and even winning the AL Cy Young back in 2009 with a 16-8, 2.16 campaign.

The Red Sox have freed up tons of money so even after making some major moves, the Red Sox could still afford to plug some small holes. 2013 might be the time for Pedro Ciriaco or Jose Iglesias to take over as the starting shortstop, but even so it wouldn’t hurt to make a minor acquisition like Ryan Theriot (.265/.313/.314, 0 home runs, 12 stolen bases) or Ronny Cedeno (.285/.363/.446, 3 home runs, 21 RBIs). Signing Cody Ross (.271/.335/.519, 19 home runs, 62 RBIs) longterm also wouldn’t hurt and if he doesn’t bite, Nick Swisher (.272/.357/.488, 19 home runs, 72 RBIs), Ryan Ludwick (.272/.342/.564, 25 home runs, 70 RBIs), and Scott Hairston (.270/.309/.512, 14 home runs, 45 RBIs) could help fill his role.

Considering the approximately $60 million that came off the books with Gonzalez, Crawford, and Beckett– signings of McCarthy (around $10 million), Hamilton (around $18 million), and Ludwick (around $7 million), the Red Sox would still have room of about $25 million to spare. See, this move wasn’t all bad!