How the 2012 Red Sox Spent $200 Million On A Dumpster Fire – by Jolly Olive
The 2012 Boston Red Sox season is widely regarded as the most embarrassing and toxic year in the franchise’s modern history. Following a massive late-season collapse in 2011, during which GM Theo Epstein also left the organization, the team replaced years of successful leadership under Terry Francona with the polarizing Bobby Valentine, whose management style immediately alienated star players and veterans. In his video, Jolly Olive details a chaotic environment defined by public infighting, a series of high-profile injuries, and a dysfunctional bullpen that led to historic on-field blown leads.
Tensions ultimately culminated in a player revolt against Valentine and a massive off-season trade that offloaded a quarter-billion dollars in salary to the Dodgers. This was of course the most infamous trade in Red Sox history that actually worked out for Boston in the end, shipping off Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Adrian Gonzalez for spare parts, but salary relief that would ultimately help the franchise rebound. Ultimately, a high-payroll roster disintegrated into a 93-loss season due to a complete breakdown in organizational chemistry.
This failure serves as a stark contrast to the team’s subsequent World Series victory just one year later under new leadership. 2012 was the year that I decided to stop following the Sox pretty early on in the season, and ultimately fell in love with the San Francisco Giants again on their way to a second World Series championship in three years. It’s a marvel that the very next season, the Sox regrouped and won it all in 2013 with honestly not all that different of a roster. The salary relief truly helped, and after all this time, I decided to dig into just how much the Sox saved.
Breaking Down the Infamous Offseason Dodgers-Red Sox Salary Dump
The trade was as follows (straight from Baseball Reference): Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto and cash to the Los Angeles Dodgers for players to be named later, Iván De Jesús, James Loney and Allen Webster. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Rubby De La Rosa (October 4, 2012) and Jerry Sands (October 4, 2012) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.
Carl Crawford was a bad signing for the Red Sox. He gave the team less than 1 Win Above Replacement over 2 seasons. He’d bounce back and be about a league-average player in 2013 and 2014 for LA before injuries cratered his production and playing time to a point where overall he was worth just 2.7 WAR over four seasons. The Dodgers paid him half of 2016 and all of 2017 to not play for them anymore.
Josh Beckett would never rise to the level of being an ace ever again. He’d only have 35 more starts over 3 seasons. He at least went out on a high note with a 2.88 ERA in his final 20 starts in 2014.
Adrian Gonzalez was actually great for the Dodgers from 2013-2016, before cratering in 2017 and finishing as a below average part-time player for the Mets in 2018. So, he was the only truly valuable piece the Dodgers got back in that trade.
Nick Punto was sort of a throw-in from the Sox, but he was actually a strong defensive utility player from the end of 2012 through 2013 for the Dodgers. His combined 2.3 WAR over one-plus season was a bargain for his $1.5 million annual salary.
For the Sox, James Loney left after a rough stretch in 2012 with the Sox and actually played two more good seasons with the Rays. His $6.3 million salary was included to help offset the salary dump. Ivan DeJesus never amounted to much in the majors, putting up a negative -1.6 career WAR, but only -0.3 WAR with the Sox. Allen Webster was an absolute disaster in just 19 bullpen appearances over two seasons for -1.4 WAR!
The players to be named later were Rubby De La Rosa and Jerry Sands. Rubby actually ate some innings for the 2014 Red Sox and later had a couple innings-eating seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks before his career petered out, I believe due to injury. In fact, the Sox got Wade Miley from the D-Backs for him and Allen Webster, a solid trade that netted them 2.3 WAR. (You could say Miley made this trade at least positive for the Sox in WAR terms.) They flipped Miley that offseason to the Mariners for Carson Smith (a promising young reliever) and Roenis Elias. Unfortunately, Smith ended up having major arm trouble and never amounted to much for the Sox. The trade didn’t look bad though as Miley wasn’t too good against until a few years later.
Notably, the Red Sox only gave the Dodgers $12 million in cash in that trade, which covered some of the difference between Loney and the other remaining salaries they offloaded. The rest of the money was all paid by the Dodgers. Beckett was on the last year of his deal anyway, and would resign with the Dodgers for about $45 million over three years, which turned out to be a poor investment. But Crawford was owed $100 million over the next five years, and one of those ended up being paid for him to not play in the MLB at all.
Adrian Gonzalez had the biggest commitment of all. $3.9 million of his 2015 salary would be paid by the Red Sox, but the Dodgers were committed to the other over $100 million over the next five years. Adrian himself would be part of a salary dump on the Atlanta Braves, who’d assume all of his 2018 salary and release him. So, the Dodgers got out of the 6th year, but Gonzalez was worth 14.4 WAR over those 6 seasons, and 2017 was a dumpster fire (-1.0 WAR in just 71 games), so overall, he was the best return.
All in all, the Sox offloaded about $200 million of future salary commitments, with only Adrian Gonzalez continuing to be sufficiently productive for the next four seasons they would’ve owed him, allowing them to rebuild. The Sox front office would continue to make dumb mistakes, of course, eventually culminating in trading Mookie Betts when they should’ve committed to him and let Xander walk (they ended up doing both.) But this trade didn’t work out at all for the Dodgers in terms of money-to-production. The Sox won this trade in the long run and probably saved the franchise for the next decade.
