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My thoughts as well. Hope they pan out, can never have too many pitching prospects.
Red Sox would never trade Lester within the division, and I don't think Yankees have enough talent to land him as it is. If LAD are willing to give up Pederson then you make the trade and like you said, re-sign him in the offseason. So essentially you would be paying what like $30m for a #1 prospect? (Assuming Lester would have accepted a 5/$125m offer during the season) That's worth it in my eyes. Tell Lester "Hey going to trade you to a contender so you have a chance at another WS ring and it makes us a better team for the future...when you're a FA we will offer you such and such and you can finish your career in Boston."
It depends on how bad the Dodgers want to win a WS. If they feel this is their year, then you get the best available SP on the trade market who is a proven ace in October. Keep in mind the Dodgers essentially are in the midst of a 5 year window that they NEED to win a WS or else all of the money they spent on all these players will have gone to waste. If they were to obtain Lester then I personally don't think there is a team that could beat them come October because as we all know, starting pitching is what wins you games in the postseason.
What does that have to do with trading for him to help win a WS? If the Dodgers were to get Lester it would guarantee that they would finish first in their division, no need for the Wild Card game drama, and they would be HEAVY WS favorites. Their playoff rotation would be Kershaw, Lester, Grienke, Ryu....which team can match that??
I hope they start selling. Trade Lester, Gomes, Drew, Uehara, heck even Napoli if they can get a decent return. No need to cling on to these guys if we are not going to make the playoffs. The only guy I would not want them to trade that I've heard teams have heavy interest in is Andrew Miller...I can see him being Uehara's replacement next year.
I'm pretty sure the Red Sox have all the leverage in this situation. "Don't want to give us a top prospect? Too bad, we'll hold on to him thanks." Red Sox don't mind holding onto him and either working out a deal after the season or giving him a QO. The only reason we would even trade him is because we can get a good return for him. It's not like Peavy in which we wanted him gone to open up a spot in the rotation for someone else.
