The one team that strikes me as a legitimate trade partner would be the Indians: They’re trying to win now(-ish), they’re starved for offense, and they don’t have an obvious choice at DH. They also have the ace-caliber starting pitching (cost-controlled no less!) that the Sox so desperately covet and have expressed a willingness to move said pitching in the recent past.

Britton quasi-dismissed them as a trading partner saying that “taking on Ramirez’s deal doesn’t really mesh with [their] philosophy”. But if the Sox covered all but, say, $10 million of his deal I think the Indians would be interested. In fact, at that price, I think Ramirez would actually have actually have at least some positive trade value in the Indians’ eyes, given his track record as a hitter and the fact that they would have to play him in the field.

Obviously, 3 dirt-cheap years of Hanley wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to get 5 affordable years of Carlos Carrasco (for example). Because they are largely in win-now mode, I imagine they’d also want an (affordable) established starter (e.g., Miley) to help fill the void Carrasco would leave behind. And for the same reason, they’d probably want couple young MLB-ready young players with some upside who can contribute right away (e.g., Owens, Vazquez, Bradley, Shaw, Holt, etc.). I’m sure they would want a couple strong prospects as well for long-term value. But with so much value coming from the current MLB-ers already included in the deal, I definitely think we could pull this off without giving up any of the guys with elite-level potential (Moncada, Benintendi, Espinoza, and Devers). Two or three of the second-tiers guys (Margot, Guerra, Kopech, S. Travis, etc.) should be enough to get it done. Does an offer of say Hanley (with $55 mil of contract covered), Miley, Owens, Vazquez, Margot, and Guerra sound reasonable to you? I know I’m biased but that almost seems like an overpay to me.

In general, there are very few scenarios in which I would be willing to pay another team tens of millions to take a chance on Hanley. Personally, I’m pretty optimistic about Ramirez’ chances to be an elite hitter again and I’m almost scared to give him up, since Papi’s age-defying miracle could come crashing to a hault at any moment. However, as part of a deal where we are getting a cost-controlled ace in return, without having to give up any of our elite-level prospects, I think it would be $55 million well spent. Hell, I’d probably be willing to cover the full 66.

Am I totally crazy?

PS- Apologies for the uber-long comment.