Now that the Mike Lowell deal has fallen through the Red Sox future plans are all up in the air. The Sox now have Youkilis and Lowell to play first and third with Kotchman and Lowrie available as backups. Lowell’s trade value is now next to nothing because it is unknown how he will do after the surgery on his thumb.
Jason Bay’s agent checked to see if the Sox would still be interested now that the Mariners are out, and the Mets deal is not much better than what Boston offered. The Sox are no longer interested now that they have Mike Cameron.
Theo could get creative and ship Ells, Buchholz, a prospect and Lowell to S.D. for Gonzalez, but the Sox would have to pick up Lowell’s salary. They could then get Bay at close to the $60 million they first offered. Think how great that lineup would be with Youk hitting third, Gonzalez batting cleanup, and Bay batting 5th. Probably a pipe-dream but it sure would be nice.
As it stands the Red Sox have a better rotation than last season and with the addition of Cameron they have better defense. Their offense should be close to where they were last season; they lost Bay’s offensive production but got an offensive upgrade at short. The team should be pretty competitive next season but Theo may still have some magic up his sleeve.
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