On Sunday night, when the Red Sox and Dodgers square off on national TV, it will be the one-year anniversary of
The Great Punto Trade—in which Boston shed $250 million of dead contract weight and gained two young pitching prospects (
Rubby De La Rosa and
Allen Webster). Ironically, the deal has worked out well for both clubs this year—as they each lead their respective divisions after miserable seasons in 2012.
MassLive.com's
Evan Drellich was able to speak with all the principals involved in that trade and
found a lot circumstances that were just right on both sides. Dodger President
Stan Kasten put it best,
"I know it worked for us. But, what we are involved with is just a different paradigm economically. It was a match-up of two teams that were in different places on their development curve and had a need that corresponded. And that's what you need." Red Sox GM
Ben Cherington talked about the breadth of involvement throughout the organization
: "There were so many people involved: baseball ops, scouts, front office people, ownership ... both teams felt like it was the right thing to do for their respective situation." Cherington goes on to say that he wasn't at all nervous about pulling the trigger on the biggest Red Sox trade in decades. Of course, there's a pretty good reason why, as Ben points out,
"We sucked at the time." Indeed.
