Carl Crawford Trade Makes Sense – Just Not Now

Carl Crawford has played two games since coming off an extended stay on the disabled list for the Boston Red Sox. He is 4 for 7 with three  stolen bases, and seems like his old self.  Today according to multiple sources including Ken Rosenthal, Crawford is on the trading block. It’s the trading season folks, and the trading deadline is near.

Of course for his part Red Sox general manager Ben Cherrington is in denial mode, “There’s nothing going on with Carl,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said. “He’s our left fielder and we’re glad to have him back in our lineup.” However, where there is smoke there is often fire, in a deal involving Crawford actually makes sense for the Red Sox.

Red Sox Will Need Help From Crawford

Although for deal to happen, the Red Sox will have to get help from Crawford himself.

Not in the way you may be thinking. Crawford has two teams on his no trade clause, and the team that does make a trade for Crawford cannot trade him to the New York Yankees. That’s not where they are going to need Crawford’s help, they need him to perform.

Crawford is 31 years old and in the second year of a seven-year $142 million deal.  After this season he will be owed $102.5 million. He is not 100% healthy. He is playing with a throwing elbow, his left, that may wind up in the left-field grass of Fenway Park on his next throw.

Crawford will need Tommy John surgery at some point.

That being said, he is not a pitcher, and position players recover much quicker from the surgery.  A team willing to take on even a portion of that contract is going to want to have a healthy player.

Crawford has not been healthy since he signed the deal with the Red Sox last year.

Crawford is going to have to perform in a big way to draw the interest of any team that resources to make the deal. It’s doubtful, that any team would want to make a trade before the deadline, without some kind of assurance that Crawford could finish the season.

Crawford has had a difficult time adjusting to the Red Sox culture.

He was quoted as saying in an interview about last year’s Red Sox manager Terry Francona,  “I didn’t feel like I had the manager’s confidence. I don’t know about the organization, but I don’t try and look past the manager, so I feel like I didn’t have the manager’s confidence, therefore I started to think something was wrong with me, and it just snowballed after that. It had a trickle-down effect, and it just got worse and worse as the days went by.” You spend $142 million on somebody, you have to live and die with them. You didn’t really give me a chance. After two days, that’s really never happened. My confidence just went down. It was gone. What do you expect? What’s wrong with one month? If I’m terrible after one month, then yeah. Who spends $142 million and throws a guy in the seven-hole and leaves him there? It doesn’t make sense to me.

It didn’t make sense to a lot of people. Trading Crawford makes more sense after the season is over, or perhaps once he can  have the surgery completed. Crawford was a very good player in Tampa Bay, and he is still a good player. It just might be for another team.