Olney: Jacoby Ellsbury Trade Price Will Be "Astronomical"

ESPN's Buster Olney was on WEEI's Mut & Merloni show on Wednesday, and discussed the future of Jacoby Ellsbury and the Red Sox while there. In essence, he's confirming some fears -- or desires -- we might have had regarding Ellsbury and the potential for him to be dealt this winter:

"More and more, you see teams making conservative offers for players near their free agency, and Scott Boras isn't going to be someone to say 'OK, if you trade us to the Giants -- and I'm just picking a team out of a hat -- we'll negotiate a new contract with the Giants.' If Jacoby follows the pattern of all of Scott's clients he's going to go into free agency," Olney said. "I'm guessing at some point the Red Sox are going to talk to Scott, see if they can work out some deal, get a price tag on him, it's going to be monumental, it's going to be astronomical, then they'll go out and talk to teams about a trade. And I'll be surprised if anyone blows them away, because of the fact that he's going to be a free agent next fall with Scott as his agent."

The Red Sox should ask for a king's ransom in exchange for Ellsbury, but that might mean they won't be able to deal him. Even if they can't, though, that means they 1) get Ellsbury to play for them in 2013 and 2) if they don't re-sign him, they can offer him a qualifying offer and receive a draft pick when someone else signs him.

You can listen to the full interview over at WEEI, where Olney also discusses the Bobby Valentine situation.