Running the numbers on the trade (II)

Revising and extending last night’s thoughts:

  • The Boston Globe says that Jason Bay’s salary this year is $5.75 million; it doesn’t go to $7.5 million until next year. So the hit to the Red Sox isn’t as bad as I’d first thought.
  • I forget to mention yesterday that the Sox will lose the two high draft picks they would have received if they’d let Manny become a free agent. That’s significant, although they wouldn’t be getting Bay.

Anyone would trade two high draft picks for Bay; that’s a steal. So the wild cards remain Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss. If either of them — especially Hansen — proves to be a star, Sox fans will be gnashing their teeth. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Moss may become a valuable fourth-outfielder type, but Hansen seems to be one of those guys for whom it just isn’t going to work out.