I get a little annoyed when Yankees and Red Sox fans openly covet non-free agent players from other teams, acting as though it’s only a matter of time before they become the property of Boston or New York. Of course sometimes there’s good reason for such thinking. Here’s recently-fired Padres’ GM Kevin Towers on the latest object-of-desire, Adrian Gonzalez:
Towers, I presume, was party to enough substantive conversations before his dismissal that such comments are more than mere speculation. Adrian Gonzalez, by the way, is only making $4.75 million next year and $5.5 million in 2011. As such, he should bring the mother lode in any trade.
Given that the Padres’ new GM Jed Hoyer just left Boston, given he is intimately familiar with their system and given that the Red Sox desperately need a corner bat like Gonzalez’, one would think that the Red Sox would make the best trading partner. Only problem: The Red Sox don’t have much in the way of MLB-ready level talent to burn.
That may be fine for the Padres considering Hoyer is apparently being told to keep payroll way, way down, but trading their best player for a bunch of talent that doesn’t project until 2012 or later may cause what’s left of the team’s fan base to revolt.