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History Rewritten: How the 2014 Red Sox Might've Been the One of the Greatest Defensive Teams in History

The Red Sox seem to be in a good place right now, even coming off aa terrible of a season as 2014. With a few front of the rotation arms and a solid third baseman (Donaldson?), they've put themselves in position to make a serious run at the AL East crown in 2015.

But let's play the "what if" game for a few moments. Had the dominoes fallen in just a slightly different direction for the Red Sox over the past few seasons, we could be looking at an all-time great defensive Sox team. One with a slam-dunk gold glove at every position.

As we start hearing rumblings of 6-year deals for Portly Pablo, further proof that our universe is deteriorating into a state of irrational and irreversible chaos, let's transfer over this parallel universe. Here are the conditionals of that place:

Conditional #1: In the pre-2012 offseason, the Yankees outbid the Red Sox for the services of Carl Crawford, at 7 years and $155 million.

Conditional #2: Clay Buchholz stays healthy throughout 2013, posting a sub-2 ERA in 30+ games

Conditional #3: Jackie Bradley Jr. follows up a hot 2013 spring training with a ROY season in which he posts a .300/.380/.440 slash line

The upshot of conditional #1 is that first, the Punto trade likely never happens- the Red Sox aren't going to deal Adrian Gonzalez just to get rid of Josh Beckett's salary. So we keep Gonzalez, owner of a .995 lifetime fielding percentage and the offender of exactly 7 errors in 282 games with the Red Sox. Secondly, it's not all that preposterous to suggest that the money saved by the non-signing of Crawford might go right back into free agency- perhaps to re-sign a certain former Sox 3rd baseman, 4-time gold glover Adrian Beltre. Fun fact: Beltre happens to be the all-time leader in Defensive Runs Saved since sabermatricians began measuring that statistic in 2002.

The impact of Conditional #2 is just that the Red Sox would have no need for Jake Peavy. Thus Jose Iglesias keeps his Sox red. Not only is Iglesias the greatest shortstop who ever lived by the eye test, but his .989 fielding percentage in 2013 would've ranked #1 among qualifiers, well above defensive-heralded Andrelton Simmons. Conditional #3 has a very obvious effect, Bradley Jr. is in the lineup every day, thus doing that voodoo which he does so well on defense. Some cause of concern though, Bradley Jr. did, and this is shocking, make an error once in his 1012 innings last year. Other than that he's a defensive centerfield prototype.

With those conditionals in effect, here's the modified partial 2015 Red Sox roster;

C: Christian Vazquez, gold glove-elect for the next 10 years.

1B: Adrian Gonzalez, aforestated .995 career fielding percentage to go with 3- make that 4 gold gloves

2B: Dustin Pedroia, who, even in a shortened season, seemed to have no competition for his 4th Gold Glove and 2nd in a row.

3B: Adrian Beltre, the aforementioned best player in the short history of defensive runs saved

SS: Jose Iglesias, see Vazquez

LF: Yoenis Cespedes, who led both leagues with 16 outfield assists in 2014

CF: Rusney Castillo, though there's not much to draw from Baseball America pegs him as a "quality centerfielder."

RF: Jackie Bradley Jr., who can throw a ball from home plate over the center field fence (where's the link?) and whose arm strength is challenged only by Cespedes's.

This logic is obviously not perfect, and I'm sure there are tons of spin-off effects that render the lineup I jammed together unable to take the field. Just off te top of my head, the aforestated lineup leaves no room for Xander Bogaerts. The Red Sox may not have traded for Cespedes, nor signed Rusney if all three conditionals came to pas. Jackie Bradley Jr. likely would have lost his spot in the 2013 lineup anyway when Ellsbury returned from injury.

But it's always fun to think of what might have been. Would that lineup have won the World Series in 2013? Maybe. Is that a risk I'm willing to take? Probably not.

The most frightening prospect of all this, however, were history to be rewritten, is the implication of Conditional #1.

Without the Punto Trade, James Loney might never have played a single game in a Red Sox uniform.