If I Were Theo for a Day

There's a glimmer of hope that Jake Peavy could be open to a trade to the Red Sox:

“Jake has a strong preference to stay in the National League. If Jake's ever going to accept anything to the American League – and I don't want this to be taken wrong – I can safely say that it's going to be the Yankees or Red Sox or maybe the Angels. Those teams are going to be in contention and are going to spend money. If there were circumstances where he would be asked to go to the AL, kicking and screaming, those are the three places.”

That being the case - if I were Theo Epstein I'd make a blockbuster offer to the Padres. The offer I'd make would be something like Clay Buchholz, Lars Andersen, Oscar Tejada and maybe two minor prospects for Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez. That's three of the top 10 prospects in the Red Sox organization.

From the Red Sox perspective - Peavy gives the Red Sox perhaps the best starting rotation in baseball (Peavy, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Daisuke Matuzaka - all potential 20-game winners) and Gonzalez would give them a young power bat for the middle of the order. Gonzalez is exactly the type of hitter the Red Sox are trying to get via their offers to Mark Teixeira but he would come without the 7-year plus mega deal. They would be giving up top prospects but all of them are blocked - Buchholz by Peavy, Andersen by Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis. Tejada is blocked by Jed Lowrie.

From the Padres perspective - they would be able to shave $12.5 million off the 2009 payroll. They would also get two MLB ready players who could be stars and one player who is about a year away. The offer I propose above is perhaps the best offer the Padres would see from anyone.

I like the idea of including Buchholz because he originally came to the Red Sox as the compensation pick for losing Pedro Martinez. I like the symmetry of losing one Cy Young Aw ard winner eventually leading to the Red Sox getting another.