Trade Review: One Nut and Keepin

One Nut receives:
SP Jon Lester BOS
Round 20

Keepin receives:
NYY Alex Rodriguez NYY
Round 13

This trade doesn’t make sense to me for the Nut. I know Jason likes to collect former all-stars, but there was no way I was going near Lester this year. In the playoffs, predictable, steady pitchers are a must and Jason just added to his already ample stable of instability. Sure, this comes with potential high reward, but Lester has been more bad than good this year and it’s significant. He just can’t be trusted. And the way the Sox are going, I just don’t see it suddenly improving. Given the league’s lack of interest in keeping the likes of Cain, CWilson, Pineda, and Garza in 2012, I find it hard to believe he’ll be able to deal off a 5.36 era and 1.41 whip in the offseason – I don’t care what his historical performance is or how many Red Sox fans there are.

That said, I definitely don’t see ARod as a keeper anymore either. Perhaps Pierce wasn’t even looking to acquire ARod and Jason just couldn’t keep him in the DL slot any longer with his injuries. It’s unlikely Pierce gets anything for ARod with the deadline is 12 days away and the 3B on the shelf until September. I bet he wishes he traded Lester a lot sooner, but he’s pretty lucky to get seven rounds at this point.  It ends one of the longer running relationships in the league, with Lester having joined Pierce’s squad five years ago (Jason traded Conor Jackson, JD Drew, Justin Upton, Jon Lester, and Phil Hughes to Pierce for Rick Ankel, Jacoby Ellsbury, Raul Ibanez, Dice-K, and KRod). At least you’ll always have 2012.