Lucchino: Red Sox Could Make "Bold" Deadline Trade

So maybe the Red Sox aren't going to trade Carl Crawford to the Miami Marlins in exchange for Hanley Ramirez and whatever other contracts they would love to dump on the Red Sox. That's fine -- no, really, please keep Heath Bell, thanks -- but it doesn't mean the Red Sox won't do something big before the July 31 trade deadline.

That's what president Larry Lucchino wants to remind people of, that the Red Sox, under first-year general manager Ben Cherington, absolutely have permission to do something "bold" at the deadline, if it would be in the best interests of the team.

"Yes, I do, I think that Ben feels empowered to do it, I think he's got the capacity to do it," Lucchino said. "We have talked frequently about boldness, that you've got to know when to be bold and know when to be somewhat more conservative and methodical, but this is a club that's been built on bold moves over the years, going way back to the Nomar Garciaparra trade as but one example.

In a nutshell: nothing has changed, in the way the Red Sox approach the trade deadline. Every question is asked, every avenue explored, and the team, in the end, attempts to do what is both best and feasible for the club. That's why Cherington at least took a call from the Marlins on Crawford (before, as Buster Olney put it, quickly killing the conversation), and why it's not unbelievable to think Boston might indeed gauge Jon Lester's trade value, even if they play to stay in this thing in 2012.

Lucchino goes on to say that it's no guarantee that something huge will go down -- so don't get your hopes/fears up just yet -- but basically that permission to do so, as it always has been, is granted.

In that spirit, let's your hear own "bold" trade ideas for the deadline, whether it involves buying, selling, or a combination of the two.