BOSTON — The Dodgers are chomping at the bit for the talent on the Red Sox roster.
They have reportedly claimed first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and pitcher Josh Beckett on the waiver wire. Now, there's talks of a megadeal that would send Gonzalez, Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the Dodgers for prospects.
If Beckett waives his veteran trade rights and Crawford gives the green light, the Red Sox would clear $262.5 million in salaries. But before the madness could reach that level, skipper Bobby Valentine dismissed the leak.
"This stuff is not supposed to be out," Valentine said. "But obviously, there is someone who is privy to the information who decides to let that stuff out and that's just, you know, I guess it's stuff you can't combat. But it's not right.
"Yeah, someone is trying to 'Yeah, we'll make their life miserable and let this one out.' I guarantee you there have been 10 guys claimed in the last week — maybe 20. Have we heard about 20 guys being claimed and going to different teams? Maybe there hasn't been that many. But you would think other guys get claimed."
Turns out, he was right. When the question was initially posed to Valentine, it was directly about Gonzalez. Shortly after, it was reported that Los Angeles also put in a claim for Beckett off waivers.
Possibly in an attempt to quash distractions, Valentine still targeted a team leak for making the information public.
"If someone really wants someone, then they claim them and they try to make a trade," Valentine said. "If someone doesn't want them and they don't want the player to go to another team, then they'll claim him and really not try to make a trade, you know, and say, we'll offer a bag of balls, and, you know, the conversation's over. Then the other team who wanted him can't get him.
"I guess that's the way the game is played. It's gone on forever. You know, the difference now is and, I know we get blamed a lot in our clubhouse about who can keep a secret. The problem now is people in baseball can't keep a secret."
Now, the situation has stolen all the headlines in baseball.
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