What Could've Been

I love reading reports about trades that could've happened.

Thanks to the Globe's Chad Finn, I now hate the general manager of the Seattle Mariners. In an apparent stroke of genius to try and shore up the starting pitching, Theo Epstein attempted to pull off the mother of all trades before the 4 p.m. deadline on Friday. Word on the street is the Sox attempted to acquire both Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres and Felix Hernandez of the M's at some point prior to the deadline. The ended up with Plan B--Victor Martinez--who by the way had five hits in yesterday's shellacking of the Orioles. According to Finn, who heard it from some guy in Seattle, the Sox offered the Mariners a choice of five of the following eight prospects:

RHP Clay Buchholz
RHP Daniel Bard
RHP Justin Masterson
LHP Nick Hagadone
RHP Michael Bowden
LHP Felix Doubront
OF Josh Reddick
SS Yamaico Navarro

So much for Daniel Bard being untouchable. On the other hand, to land either Gonzalez or Hernandez, I'd say that giving him up would most likely be the only way to acquire them. The loss of Bard would set the bullpen back a bit since they swapped Masterson (along with Hagadone and Price) for V-Mart but you've got to give something up to get something back. Hernandez is a top-notch talent at a measly $3.8 million. To have landed him and V-Mart would've made Boston that much more dangerous for the stretch run, especially with series against Tampa Bay and the Yankees this week.

When that first offer was turned down (holy crap, I would've just taken any of the top 5 and Reddick--that kid has a cannon for an arm), Theo tried AGAIN. This time, he brought San Diego into the mix and tried to get them to send Gonzalez to Seattle with Buchholz prospects from Boston and San Diego. San Diego would get probably 5-7 prospects total from the Sox and M's and the local nine would end up with Hernandez.

Crazy, no? A three-way blockbuster deal that could've happened. Apparently it wouldn't have immediately benefited the Mariners. Had Theo not traded for V-Mart, it's quite possible that Seattle could have received Masterson and Buchholz--both are major league pitchers. Now I hate Seattle management and I hope that somewhere they're kicking themselves for not pulling the trigger on this one.