Hot Stove Lunch: Report - Mega-deal brewing with Dodgers

Just when things seemed quiet with the Red Sox -- and no, I'm not counting the Kevin Plawecki signing as something that will get the fan base revved up -- comes a report that the Sox are engaging the Los Angeles Dodgers in trade talks.

According to Jon Paul Morosi of the MLB Network, the Sox and Dodgers have had discussions about a deal that would send both David Price and Mookie Betts to L.A.

That the Red Sox would be trying to move Price, of course, is hardly shocking. The team has expressed a desire to reduce payroll and get under the first CBT (competitive balance tax) threshold of $208 million. To achieve that, a big salary will have to be trimmed and Price's -- $32 million in each of the next three seasons -- qualifies, even if it's generally accepted that the Sox will have to take back at least a portion of that salary to make a deal tenable.



But to date, there's been nothing that's come to fruition, which suggests the Red Sox have to sweeten the deal.

Enter, Betts.

According to Morosi, the inclusion of Betts would allow the Sox to get a premium prospect back as part of the deal. Morosi mentions two starting pitchers -- Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. May is ranked as the Dodgers' top pitching prospect and Gonsolin is third.

Here's one way to look at such a swap: Price would be strictly a salary dump, with the Sox unloading most of his remaining money, while one year of control of Betts would fetch a top pitching prospect.

Looked at that way, perhaps the deal isn't a bad one. We know that Price's money -- and age and questions about his durability -- make it almost impossible to get something back for him, unless the Sox were to eat a lot more of his contract. And that becomes counterproductive, since the whole idea behind trading him is to get the Sox closer to $208 million.

We also knew that trading Betts wouldn't mean the Sox would get full value for him, since he's eligible for free agency in November and has given every indication that he intends to see what he's worth on the open market.

But dealing both Price and Betts would essentially mean the Sox are abandoning all hope of contending in 2020, too. And that may be the toughest part for Sox fans to swallow in all of this.

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