There is certainly embellishment there by Stark but he's generally a good writer and the bottom line of getting under the tax threshold once to reset things is a really big deal, as effectively wild, well, effectively says above
In the Mookie/Price trade, the Sox
(a) got a return on Mookie that is greater than they would have gotten had they just played it out
(b) traded him in a year in which it was very hard to believe they would have been WS contenders with him on the roster
(c) got out of the Price deal; and
(d) re-set their luxury tax situation/fixed their CBT problem
One can disagree whether this was a good idea. The Price part is an easy target given the current state of the starting rotation. Trading one of the very best players in the game for prospects, essentially, one of whom is already injured, takes a lot of buy in to like.
But one thing is undeniable if you know anything about how the CBT works: Getting out from under the taxes is a huge positive.
That John Henry and Chaim Bloom want us to actually believe that one of the few clear benefits of an otherwise difficult deal to swallow was a non-factor is incredibly annoying.
I can put up with a lot. I am extremely grateful to this ownership group for the four titles and the work they have done on Fenway. There have been mistakes along the way, but the "19-18" chants from those asshole Yankees fans still ring in my ears, and the sense after the Grady Boner Game that they would just never win a freaking title is something I remember well. So, in my view, it would take a special kind of ingrate to outright hate this ownership group. So many good things have happened on their watch, after decades of so many bad things and near misses.
But damn, don't lie to me so obviously, and if you are not lying, don't be so stupid. And you, Chaim Bloom, you're new. Don't start off your career in Boston by asking very intelligent fans to believe that one of the few clear positives in this deal is irrelevant.
In light of all this, I am less excited in late February about the upcoming baseball season that I ever have been at the same time in my life. I don't see that changing and given the state of the pitching staff as a whole, I suspect that I will be less dialed into the Red Sox this summer than I ever have been. That the owners and new GM have handled themselves as they have is a factor in all this. Not the only one, to be sure, as the team's prospects on the field matters the most. But the combo of the trade and how it has been spun have left me angrier than anything other than Grady leaving Pedro in (or better said, bringing him back out), and that problem was effectively remedied by this ownership group within days of Grady making his incredible set of mistakes. Here, the owners have thrown gasoline on the problem.