Coco Crisp Traded to Royals

The Red Sox have dealt centerfielder Coco Crisp to the Royals for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Who knew the Royals had such a surplus of quality bullpen arms?

The trade is the second made by Kansas City this offseason. A few weeks ago they traded reliever Leo Nunez for first baseman Mike Jacobs.

A few things to glean from this transaction, the first being, wow, the cost of a decent, young, middle reliever is a starting centerfielder. I realize Coco Crisp isn’t exactly an All-Star, but centerfielders who can play strong defense and provide some offense are in strong demand right now. Crisp would probably start for at least half the teams in MLB. That said, if the Mets want to trade for a good, young reliever — i.e., Huston Street — they might have to part with someone like Ryan Church.

Second, how many more arms do the Royals have out there in the cornfields? Do they have one to spare for the Mets? It seems strange that a team that won only 75 games last year could have so much quality pitching depth.

By the way, this deal was probably done a few days ago, but the Red Sox wanted to wait until after the AL MVP was announced, so that the attention given to Dustin Pedroia would not be diluted. Further, Peter Gammons hinted at the Red Sox trading Crisp for a middle reliever on Monday, suggesting that Boston wants to move Justin Masterson into the starting rotation.