Coco Crisps Future

The future of Coco Crisp is an issue that will become of great importance over the next 2 years. The Red Sox really didn't give up all that much to acquire him last summer. Essentially, we gave up Edgar Renteria, who had a terrible season for the Sox the year before, to acquire him. Now, with Jacoby Ellsbury waiting in the wings to be our starting center fielder come 2008 and Wily Mo Pena, a semi-capable center fielder looking for at bats, trading Crisp looks like a true options. If the Red Sox were to trade Crisp now, they could put Pena at center then when Manny leaves move Pena over and put Ellsbury at center. Coco has recently put his house on sale in Middleton. While this might not have anything to do with a trade, it could show his disappointment with his time in Boston.

Where could Coco go? Looking at teams and their needs, there are about 7 teams that could be interested in his abilities. The list is Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Seattle Mariners. Several of these teams have been linked to Crisp in resent months, looking at that the list can be shorten to the White Sox, Pirates, and Rockies.

The White Sox are desperate to fill a hole they have in left field, currently Scott Podsednik in occupying that position and his .683 OPS just isn't cutting it. It doesn't help that they have a completely unproven center fielder, Brian Anderson, and a shortstop that could miss the season with legal problems, Juan Uribe. Add to that the need to the White Sox for a 5th or 6th starter, which the Red Sox have, this trade seems very possible. A trade with the White Sox would be confusing because what the Red Sox would want in return is complicated. The White Sox have very little that the Red Sox currently have. Possibly a package of prospects, Josh Fields?, could be in line.

Logically speaking, the Pirates and Rockies are not as natural of a pick as the White Sox. The Pirates have young players at RF and CF and a lack of a solid 4th outfielder. If Crips was acquired you could through him at either RF or CF and put either Duffy or Bautista as the 4th. This out of all of the options is the most unlikely. While the Pirates have shown interest, they are not going to be giving up Mike Gonzalez for an OF that will, best case scenario, is blocking nice young players.

The Rockies have shown interest in Crisp over the past year. He would fill the one gaping hole in the Rockies line up. Currently, Willy Taveras is the starting CF and his stats are very lackluster. Crisp would be a nice player to throw in that young lineup. What the Rockies would give up is a little less clear than the reason why they would want Crisp. The best case we can work out a way to get Brian Fuentes. He would be a great arm to close games and could be expendable for the Rockies. Ubaldo Jimenez and LaTroy Hawkins could be used in the closer role, which would make him expendable.

So there are the places he could go. Whether its Coco or Pena or Murphy or Ellsbury, someone has got to go. You can't have this 4 players for one position. We have resources to fix problems now, relief pitching, or the future, hitting depth. Lets go Theo, work your magic.