 |
| A-Gon In Carmine Hose |
Adrián González played just 282 games for
The Carmine Hose over parts of two seasons. In that span, he hit .321 with 42 HRs and 203 RBIs—featuring an .895 OPS. Pretty good stuff. Of course, he was the only real "filet mignon" among the other "ground beef" in the infamous 2012
Nick Punto Deal (OK,
maybe Josh Beckett was a top sirloin). But, we
had to include A-Gon to make the deal work—bringing Boston
boatloads of freed-up cash along with a bevy of forgettable players (
Ivan De Jesus,
James Loney,
Allen Webster,
Rubby De La Rosa,
Jerry Sands). Some fans forget that we parted with a guy named
Anthony Rizzo to
get González in the first place—in a trade with the San Diego Padres in 2010 (although we did get
Eric Patterson as well, he wrote with heavy sarcasm). So, today, A-Gon turns 35 years old, and perhaps we should start to evaluate his comings and goings
vis a vis the Red Sox. In the six seasons since he
left, González has hit .282 with 98 HRs and 429 RBIs—resulting in an OPS of .801. So, he has clearly dropped off some. The question is: was the financial windfall worth the loss of Rizzo (and the two abysmal seasons González was here: 2011 and 2012)?
He was fine, but the teams sucked big time. We guess the answer is a "wash"—without unloading those burdensome contracts in 2012, the team probably doesn't win in 2013 or develop the young talent we have today. So, happy birthday, A-Gon!
