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If you are a Sox fan, or just a fan of good general manage ring, you have to like what the new Red Sox GM is doing. Faced with little room in the budget, owing to the threat of the luxury tax, he was able to remake the bullpen following the loss of longtime closer, Papelbon, to free agency.

Cherington gave up:

Lowrie
Weiland
Reddick
Two minor leaguers who were in the low minors last year and were not top 10 or even top 15 prospects

In return he received two relievers who served as closers for their respective losing teams last season. Both ended the year with nice numbers, and peripherals that support their respective successes. Both pitchers are under team control for two or more seasons.

Lowrie was potentially the real loss here. He was the ss of the future for the Sox for several years, and while healthy showed some of the skills that made him the prospect that he was. That said, Lowrie apparently was only an average at best fielder, and had great difficulty staying healthy. I do not believe that Weiland or Reddick really featured prominently in the Boston future plans.

When Bard ultimately is returned to the pen, the Sox have a potentially rock solid and deep back end of the bullpen...all young and relatively cheap both in salaries and in the cost to obtain them...certainly cheaper then the potential cost of Madson or Paps.

Meanwhile, Madson and Cordero appear to be the guys standing without chairs when the music stopped. With Boston out of the picture, only Toronto appears in need of a closer (maybe Cinci if you don't like Marshall there). Now Toronto has all of the leverage and should be able to sign Madson for relatively small dollars with a fallback option of Cordero and his shrinking K%.

The moves and patience of Boston and Toronto, highlight the foolishness of earlier signings of the Mets (FF for 2 at 6 per and Rauch for 1 at 3.5), Marlins (fading, PETCO -aided Bell for 3 years at 9 per), Phillies (setting the market for overpaying with Paps) Lets face it, if Bailey is worth a 4th of and two low end prospects everyone who bought a RP basically overpaid.

I would not count the Angels out in terms of Madson.

FWIW, Boston was not all that high on Lowrie. Like us, they fear the injury and there was something about his character, worlds like "uncoachable" were bandied about. He is not big enough of a name to be used as an example to the rest of the team as a means to show what will happen if a repeat of the Sept '11 clubhouse shenanigans, but I do think his move was not 100% on-field related.

Madson is an interesting case, isn't he?
Before last year, even by the Phils reckoning, he was the guy that nobody could give the ball to in the ninth inning. One good year later, he thought he would get Papelbon money. That just ain't gonna happen. The wheels of the closer vehicle are still in motion. Cincinnati most likely signs somebody with experience there, probably Cordero at a lower cost. The Rockies may even settle for a Brad Lidge type to hedge the Betancourt bet. The Twins trust Capps like the Mets trust Kilimanjaro. The White Sox have arms but lack an experienced closer.

I agree with Doug. The Mets signing Francisco and Rauch is amusing. The Jays couldn't wait to rid themselves of the gruesome twosome, but the Mets overpay for the former problem. One man's trash....

I also agree with Doug about Cherington. Lowrie doesn't play triple digit games during a season, almost like he was mentored by JD Drew. He also did Wieland a favor. His stuff could translate in San Diego, he wasn't the sort of pitcher that has a lot of success in Boston.
At the same time, Reddick was not done a favor. His avg will suffer playing full time against lefties. The ball park effect hurts him as does the lack of hitters in the Oakland lineup. With no one tool to hang his hat on, Reddick becomes a late draft flyer.
Sweeney flies under the radar in the trade. He should be in the field during the latter part of most Boston games.
For fantasy purposes, a flyer.

Schwks wrote: With Boston out of the picture, only Toronto appears in need of a closer .

Toronto traded a pitching prospect to the White Sox for Sergio Santos who will close for the Blue Jays

As a Mets fan, I could go on for days. In reality though, this is a team that should lose 85-90 games in a division where they will have their SP outclassed on every night. So why would Alderson spend 15.5 million over the next two years on a closer and a reliever? The other teams expecting to lose big for next few years are selling their closers off...Oakland, Houston, Chicago Sox(Bailey, Melancon and Santos) A closer is a luxury that a losing team in financial straights does not need. The problem that the Mets face, is that every time they suffer a middling-awful year, they lose more of whatever "brand" they might currently possess. So rather then stripping the team bare as should be done, they try patch quilt signings.

I do believe that in the current day and age, a team's prime assets are not their sps, their hitters or even their managers...it is their brain trust. The Cubs made the right first move in importing Epstein and Hoyer. I felt that the Mets made the right move with Alderson, DePodesta and Ricciardi, only to have the move derailed by the realization that this team is bleeding money, and will likely need to be run as a middle market team even should the blessed event occur and Wilpons sell the team.

I wonder to what extent Madson was derailed by having Boras as his agent.