Was Carl Crawford Trade Interest Mutual?

The specifics of the Red Sox - Marlins trade talks from last week are, at best, cloudy. But, as time passed, it seemed to become clear that the Marlins had called up the Red Sox, asked if they would be interested in paying for the privilege to swap bad contracts with a prospect, and been rebuffed almost instantly.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post tells a rather different story.

In an article which spends a good deal of time pegging the Red Sox as semi-legitimate contenders and the greatest threat to the Yankees (despite the 49-50 record and general feeling of despondency and hopelessness around these parts), Sherman drops this short paragraph on Boston's local persona non grata:

The Red Sox earlier this month did try to flip Carl Crawford to the Marlins for Jose Reyes to address the shortstop situation. One AL executive said of Crawford, that Boston "wants him out in the worst way." But the deal died.

Reyes' name had popped up a couple times on July 18th, when this whole thing was first emerging, but it was really only as the subject of some random speculation borne of the two teams involved without anything concrete being mentioned until now.

If Sherman isn't just getting things mixed up, this would fly in the face of comments made by Ben Cherington denying that the Sox had tried to shop Crawford. It wouldn't be terribly surprising, either. While there's always hope for a rebound, Crawford's dismal start to his second year with the team is beyond discouraging, and with surgery perhaps in the wings, it's hard to imagine the Sox aren't at least looking around, hoping to find someone who still values Crawford highly.

Of course, since the Marlins are not run by Tony Reagins, any hopes the Sox had of prying Jose Reyes from the Marlins in exchange for Crawford were likely dead before Cherington even picked up the phone. Can someone please get that man a job on a wealthy team?