A younger, slimmer, and more muscular Adrian Gonzalez with the Padres

Red Sox Trade? 
(Well, Technically It Will Be A Waiver Deal)

If the proposed Red Sox deal goes through with the Dodgers the following salaries could no longer be on the payroll next year: 

Carl Crawford in happier days.

Adrian Gonzalez $21.857 million 
Carl Crawford $20.857 million
Josh Beckett $17 million
Daisuke Matsuzaka (2013 Free Agent)  $10.333 million this year as an  ineffective, injury prone, tortuous-to-watch player
David Ortiz (2013 Free Agent) making $14.575 million as an aging, injury prone, DH

Josh fires a pitch after a long deliberation. Are you asleep yet?

This adds up to a potential total savings of $84.622 million that could be spent on younger, more productive, less complacent not-so-comfortable-in-losing players. 
I think next year's team will have a better record than this year's. 

I'm a little surprised the Yankees didn't play a little "chicken" with the Red Sox and claim Adrian Gonzalez. 

Sure he is expensive but he wouldn't be a bad consolation prize if the Sox actually let the Yankees have him, which they probably wouldn't.  The Yankees may regret passing on the opportunity to put the kibosh on this potential deal which will be a Godsend for the Red Sox. I believe if the Yankees had known this transaction was possible, they would have blocked it. 

Adrian Gonzalez just didn't look like he was enjoying himself in the least amount during his time with the Red Sox. I can understand that the Boston press is annoying and self righteous but that kind of money makes it easy to ignore that stuff. His stats have been OK and he leads the league in RISP average, but the power numbers have suspiciously declined and there is a perception that he doesn't hit in the clutch, mainly because the team tanked last September and has not been in the race this year. 

Crawford was terrible last year and has been injured off and on (currently on, recovering from Tommy John surgery, he may be back in time for spring training) since he arrived. 

Beckett has been mediocre for years. His fine stats last season were negated by the beer and chicken induced September swoon. He pitches soooo slowly, it seems like I'm stoned when I watch him. 

On those rare occasions in recent years when Daisuke Matsuzaka was able to pitch you would find me contemplating seppuku. Daisuke seems to operate on the theory to never throw a strike when the batter might swing at a bad pitch. On the rare occasion when he went ahead on a batter no balls two strikes, you could usually win a bar bet that the count would go full.

The chances that David Ortiz will avoid injury or decline in the next two or three years are too high to pay him anywhere near his current salary on a long term contract (more than one year at his age)  to be a DH. My guess is his pride will not allow him to  play year by year and I expect he will move on.  

Utility infielder Nick Punto will also be going to the Dodgers. He made $1,500,000 this year and was not expected back since he had a cheap buyout for next year. He is a fine fielder but his bat has abandoned him in his old (in baseball terms) age. He will be useful to the Dodgers because of injuries.  

Red Sox contract information found HERE.