In Case You Missed Kind Of A Big Weekend

Fresh off of a late-summer camping trip? Maybe you went off to kayak in western Massachusetts, and left the cares of an internet-connected world behind until today. Or, maybe you had to go all Oz and head to Tibet in order to learn how to contain your rage at what has been a disappointing Red Sox season, and are just now getting back to the office. There's also the possibility that you just missed some of our trade-related writing this weekend.

Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto, and all but $12 million of their combined contracts headed west to Los Angeles on Saturday, in exchange for James Loney, Allen Webster, Ivan De Jesus, and players to be named later that are assumed to be Jerry Sands and Rubby De La Rosa. We had a full breakdown of the what and why as far as the quarter-of-a-billion dollars Los Angeles took on, relieving Boston of a massive chunk of salary, as well as looks at each of the players the Red Sox acquired in exchange for those long-term deals.

Ben Buchanan tried to figure out some of what Boston could (responsibly) do with the money now that it's freed up, and Brendan O'Toole asked what it is Boston should do now: spend, save, trade, or wait.

This was a far more exciting late-August weekend than was expected, but it signals a major reversal from the last few years in terms of team building, while likely also proclaiming this to be Ben Cherington's team.