Union4Sox wrote:

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I understand your point, but I maintain both of my statements. When I say "a cost of keeping/getting rid of Lowell", I'm referring to the fact that you can't quantify the adverse effect that will occur if the Sox keep him on the 25 man roster as a bench player. He serves no purpose as a utility player. In reality, you won't see him at 1st, he will only play DH and 3B. Instead of an extra reliever or a defensive outfielder/infielder, you will have Lowell. It would be like using Ortiz as a utility player. I think there is a future cost to a decision like that, which cannot be quantified. In other words, to sign Beltre (or someone else) w/o getting rid Lowell, would be a bad idea. I'd rather release Lowell and keep a 25 man roster.

And furthermore, when I said there was a cost of getting rid of Lowell, that isn't false. There will be a fully realized loss when he is traded and we eat the salary. It is a sunk cost, true, and thus in theory shouldn't influence future decisions (I definitely did a bad job of making that distinction in my initial comment), but it is the equivalent of writing down a real estate asset (something you purchased for 11 million and sold for $6 million). Point being, that sunk cost shouldn't influence a decision to booster our club via a trade or a FA, but it looks ugly on a balance sheet.