Bye-bye, Beckett… (Photo by Keith Allison, c/o Flickr.com)

It’s official… the Red Sox have completed a mega deal that will send Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the LA Dodgers for first baseman, James Loney, pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster, outfielder Jerry Sands and infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr.

According to the Boston Herald (who also had the great headline of “Bums Away”):

The deal will be worth in excess of $275 million to the Red Sox including luxury tax savings and salaries for the remainder of this season and beyond. Over the next six years, the Dodgers will receive $12 million from the Red Sox, with the payments to begin next year.

I’m ridiculously excited about this deal. Not so much the Adrian Gonzalez part because I did sort of like him. But Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford? Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. And what are they really missing by getting rid of Punto? His main roll in this team was to operate the Shredder after a walk-off home run — and those were few and far between this season.

I know this trade isn’t going to fix what’s wrong with this team. There’s still a lot of work to be done. First and foremost — to make this group of selfish shitheads an actual TEAM again. And I don’t see that happening this year. The Red Sox organization needs a major overhaul starting with the manager position. As long as Bobby Valentine skippers this group of guys, there’s going to be discontent.

Hopefully this will end the bad habit the Red Sox have of making big, $100 million plus blockbuster deals that never seem to work out the way they should.