Boston Red Sox: Top 5 offseason moves in franchise history
By Jack Rubin
To Arizona: LHP Casey Fossum, RHP Brandon Lyon, LHP Jorge de la Rosa, OF Michael Goss
To Boston: RHP Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling waived his no-trade clause for one reason. He accepted a trade to Boston for the sole purpose of delivering a championship, and deliver he did.
The 216-game winner came to the Sox at the tail-end of his career. At 37, there were questions about how much gas he had left in the tank after deep playoff runs with Arizona and lost seasons in Philadelphia. In spite of his age, Schilling finally gave the Red Sox a frightening counter-punch to Pedro Martinez.
It is tough to aptly summarize what Schilling’s bloody sock performance represented and meant to Red Sox fans. That outing alone would have made any cost of the trade worthwhile. That’s not to mention what Schill did in the 2004 regular season. He fired 226.2 innings over 32 starts with a nearly perfect 21-6 record. Schilling is one of the best postseason pitchers ever, living by his “whatever it takes” motto. His career postseason marks include a 2.23 ERA and a sub-one WHIP, plus he boasts an 11-2 record.
Fossum and Lyon bounced around the bigs for years, and Goss never cracked an MLB roster. Jorge de la Rosa is still a useful reliever for the Diamondbacks after a long stint in Colorado.
In short, this was another move that lead directly to the 2004 Championship for the Red Sox. Though events after Schilling’s career may keep him out of the Hall, there is no denying his impact on the Sox. All of the transactions on this list contributed in a major way to the two titles in ’04 and ’07, making them not only the best offseason moves in franchise history but also the most important.