BoSox trying to keep up with the Yanks

When defending one’s throne, it’s always important to check up on the enemy.

From Jon Heyman (SI):

• Some baseball people are speculating that the Red Sox will try even harder to keep up with the Yankees now and make a renewed push to try to acquire star Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay. Boston made perhaps the best offer for Halladay last summer (Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Michael Bowden, Nick Hagadone and a positional prospect) and their incentive to improve may be enhanced after the Yankees’ championship. Some believe that the Jays could wait until the summer to deal Halladay, though, and one GM said he believes they’d get as much for Halladay at next year’s trade deadline as they could this winter (but still significantly less than they could have gotten at last year’s deadline).

• Boston is also seen as a team that will make sure it gets at least one big power hitter, and maybe two. Some wonder whether ex-Red Sox executive and new Padres GM Jed Hoyer might be more likely to make a deal with Boston (e.g., Adrian Gonzalez) since he’s familiar with their prospects (but maybe he’s so familiar that he’ll want exactly the ones Boston wants to hold onto). Like Hoyer, deposed Padres GM Kevin Towers had strong a connection to Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. Epstein was Hoyer’s boss, and Towers was Epstein’s boss.

I don’t see how Boston’s Theo Epstein could trade for both Halladay and Gonzalez, as they barely have the necessary pieces to acquire one of the two premier players, a point Ken Rosenthal articulates in his latest.

Of the two, Adrian Gonzalez appears to be the better trade candidate for the Sawx. He would help to improve the team’s offense, especially in the event that Jason Bay signs elsewhere. In addition, Mike Lowell and David Ortiz are both offensive question marks going forward. With a Gonzalez trade, the Red Sox could then send Mike Lowell to another organization—the Phillies could be a nice fit—while shifting Kevin Youkilis back to third base. They would then pray for a Big Papi revival. Basically, at this point in time, the Boston lineup is extremely unpredictable, and, for that reason, an Adrian Gonzalez acquisition seems to make more sense than a Roy Halladay trade. Such a trade is easier said than done, though.

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see what the Red Sox choose to do so as to counter the winning ways of the Yankees. Yankees fans had a fun winter last year, so maybe this year, through a mixture of trades and free agent pickups, we’ll see Red Sox Nation have their own memorable offseason.

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