This could have been an easy story plucked from the Obvious Pile by Ken Rosenthal, but it does seem that the Red Sox are making a hard push to acquire San Diego first baseman Adrian Gonzalez:
A deal is not close, and might not happen at all, sources said. Jed Hoyer, the Padres’ new general manager -- and Red Sox’s former assistant GM -- wants a high price for Gonzalez, whose contract is one of the biggest bargains in baseball.
"Jed has been asking for a ton," one source said.
It's unclear who the Red Sox are willing to give up, but with John Lackey on board, Clay Buchholz is expendable. If the Red Sox really like the Jeremy Hermida idea in left field, that makes Jacoby Ellsbury expendable, too. Casey Kelly, according to most reports, is off-limits.
In my mind, it's about 20 percent that this trade actually goes down and the Red Sox land Gonzalez.
If the Sox were to acquire Gonzalez -- without giving up Ellsbury -- here's what their lineup could look like come Opening Day:
C Victor Martinez
1B Adrian Gonzalez
2B Dustin Pedroia
3B Kevin Youkilis
SS Marco Scutaro
LF Jacoby Ellsbury
CF Mike Cameron
RF JD Drew
DH David Ortiz
Uhh. I'm sold. As much as I don't want to trade Buchholz, he's the odd man out with Lackey in the mix now. With Buchh out, all of a sudden the Sox's rotation gets a whole lot older, anchored by +30 men in Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett and Lackey.