NESN

Deal With Dodgers May Save Red Sox Money, But Cost of Trading Away Key Pieces Could Hurt

Editor’s note: NESN.com is going to tell the story of the 2012 Red Sox in Bobby Valentine’s words. Each game day, we will select the best Valentine quote that sums up the day for the Red Sox.

When the dust settles — if it does — this will be the game when the Red Sox turned the page. Trading away $270 million worth of contracts will do that for a team, after all.

There’s no guarantee that the Sox will definitely trade Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford to the Dodgers along with Nick Punto, of course, but everything appears to be pointing in that direction. So as the rebuilding unofficially begins, the Red Sox will be forced to look in the mirror and reevaluate where they are, how they got there and where they are going next. It’s not going to be easy.

“I think they’re looking to put the ballclub in a better situation next year,” David Ortiz said of the potential blockbuster. “I’m not saying that we’re going to be in a better situation without those players. We’re about to find out.”

Big Papi’s reluctance to endorse the deal is not surprising. After all, the situation he wants and the one that Ben Cherington and the Red Sox front office want are different.

Ortiz wants to win now. How feasible that will be without Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford could be a real concern for him. However, it might not be as much of one for the front office.

After all, Cherington is charged with looking at the big picture, and making sure the Sox are in a good position not just next year but also the one after that — and the one after that, too.

Which means the emotions of this deal won’t be easy for the players — or their manager.

“We win together, we lose together, we fight together,” Bobby Valentine mused in the aftermath of a wild day. “We go through a lot of stuff together.”

Say what you will about what exactly that “stuff” was, but Valentine is right. The 2012 Red Sox went through plenty, and they know it.

Fans may feel one way or another about Beckett, Crawford, Gonzalez and Punto, but those guys went to war with the other 21 members of the Red Sox clubhouse. They were friends, they were co-workers and they were teammates.

The Red Sox might find themselves with new teammates soon. And after everything they went through with the old ones, it’ll never be the same.