The Red Sox and Dodgers came together on a huge blockbuster trade 10 years ago this Thursday. Boston sent Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Nick Punto to Los Angeles for James Loney and four prospects.
The four were owed over $270 million and the Red Sox were to pay just $12 million of that. It was a cost-saving move for a Red Sox franchise that needed a change.
Punto took Rob Bradford and Audacy’s “The Bradfo Sho” inside one of the biggest trades in Red Sox history on the 10th anniversary of the deal.
“We were catching wind before July 31st,” Punto said (5:25 in player above). “Not necessarily me, but Beckett was catching some wind. CC mentioned something. I think Adrian mentioned something to me that they heard just some rumbles, right.”
The July 31st trade deadline came and went. The Red Sox weren’t in contention but they wanted to bear down and just play baseball.
But the August 31st waiver deadline loomed. And the Dodgers struck a deal less than a week before that.
“Adrian was the first person to tell me so you would imagine that Adrian’s agent knew something,” Punto said. “There was nothing concrete at all. I think it was more like, for him, probably wishful thinking because he knew the Dodgers were playing well and he’s from out there. Who knows what it was because we never really dove into it together. It happened pretty fast, though. I feel like when I found out about it, it was a couple days later it actually went down right away.”
“I remember being a little bit frustrated with it,” he said. “But like I said, there was nothing concrete and it was all just mumbles and rumbles. I do remember feeling ‘Dang, this just doesn’t feel right.”
Punto recalled how he found out about the blockbuster deal.
“Cherington comes down and yeah he addressed all of us,” Punto said (23:40 in player above). “I think he pulled all of us into a room. It was crazy. It was nuts… after getting that conversation, so many different emotions. It was just a whirlwind and just crazy.”
Ben Cherington was then the Red Sox general manager and he was joined by President/CEO Larry Lucchino. Punto doesn’t remember much of the meeting, but he remembers how it felt.
“You know when Charlie Brown goes ‘womp womp womp womp womp,’ that’s what that meeting was for me. I was just lke ‘This is crazy,’ like it hurts. It hurts to get traded no matter what the scenario is,” he continued. “I wasn’t very good. I was the right guy to trade, but it’s a little bit painful when you get that phone call.”
The whirlwind only got more chaotic after the trade
“All the clubhouse attendants get on top of you real quick because you gotta move quick. You gotta get your stuff packed up,” Punto said. “Adrian Gonzalez played in that baseball game for the Dodgers the same day we got traded. So, because of that three-hour time difference they were able to get us on a jet, fly us to LA, and then he hit a home run.”
Gonzalez immediately made his presence felt in LA with a three-run home run in his first at-bat en route to an 8-2 victory.
Punto also got into the game. He worked a walk in the eighth inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Luis Cruz.
“I think I came in late in that game. I either got an at-bat or pinch defense or something,” Punto said. “It was bizarre. It was crazy.”
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