I woke up this morning to word of the pending trade.  It is now official.  Josh Beckett is gone along with Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto.  We got virtually nothing in return, but lots and lots of freed up cash since the Dodgers are picking up most of the remaining contracts.  May Josh eat his fried chicken and drink his beer and enjoy his new clubhouse.  Crawford was never healthy enough to figure out if he could have made it here in Boston, but he never really lost that “deer in the headlights” look.  Gonzalez was a contributor despite the fact that he turned out to be whiner.  And Nick Punto?  He tweeted this

Even though Gonzalez looks happy here, he had the grace to tweet this

“Thanks to Red Sox nation for everything. You guys are great!”

But Adrian is happy to be headed for California.  I guess there are west coast guys and east coast ones and he is a west coaster. 

Will this be what it takes to turn the Sox around?  Too late for this season, I’m afraid, but to quote from Dan Shaughnessy in his column this morning in the Boston Globe

You want them to blow it up?

This would be blowing it up.

The prospective blockbuster would signify a white flag on this horrible season. More than that, it would mark the end of a failed era of big names, big salaries, big egos, and maddening underachievement,

Will any of the prospects the Sox acquire emerge as blue-chip big leaguers? We don’t know. That’s not what this trade is about. This trade is about clearing the air of the stench created by the 2011 and 2012 Red Sox. It’s about saying goodbye to arrogance, unearned entitlement, and poor performance from top-priced talent. It’s about changing the rotten culture of the Sox clubhouse, a malaise that has turned even diehard fans against the once-beloved franchise.

After 12 infuriating months of passivity, sloth, and denial, the Sox look like they’re finally admitting they have a problem. This is always an important first step. The deal would be a whopper . . . in terms of the people who are leaving Boston.

Let’s make sure we keep Clay, Dustin,  Ortiz, and Ellsbury.  Let’s make sure we nurture Middlebrooks, Lin, and our other minor leaguers.  Let’s build for the future.

Peter Abraham argues that the quartet that were traded are not bad people, just good players not suited for the big media market.  Maybe true of Crawford and Gonzales, but Beckett’s bad boy, don’t care what fans think attitude got really old – especially when he had bad game after bad game.  Josh was a star in 2007 and tried to live off that without doing anything new.  Boston fans can be brutal and he did nothing to help.

Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m going to tune in to the Sox tonight, but to check out what is going on.  Good luck to the Sox and good luck to the new Dodgers and their teammates.