NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Not since the Corleones at the end of "The Godfather" has one organization settled as much family business in one day as the Boston Red Sox did Tuesday.
As the day dawned at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the Red Sox were hunting for a reliever to pitch the eighth inning and a left-handed hitter, all the while remaining mindful of trying to stay below the $195 million luxury-tax threshold.
Then, with three moves in the span of about nine hours, they addressed those issues, plus one other enormous one. The Sox acquired reliever Tyler Thornburg from the Milwaukee Brewers and agreed to terms on a one-year contract with free-agent first baseman Mitch Moreland. In between, they pulled off a whopper of a trade for ace lefty Chris Sale in which they sent top prospects Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech to the Chicago White Sox.
Got all that?
Catch your breath. We'll wait.
"When he targets a guy, he gets him," Red Sox manager John Farrell said of second-year Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski.
Or, you know, when he targets three guys ...
Thornburg, a 28-year-old right-hander, gives the Sox a younger, cheaper setup man coming off a breakout season, assuming he's healthy after elbow troubles in 2014. His addition spells the end of the road in Boston for 41-year-old Koji Uehara, who will forever be remembered for throwing the clinching pitch of the 2013 World Series.
To get Thornburg, the Red Sox parted with lefty-hitting corner infielder Travis Shaw and two minor leaguers, including touted Double-A shortstop Mauricio Dubon. But Dubon's path to the big leagues was blocked by the presence of All-Star Xander Bogaerts, and Shaw's stock within the organization had fallen because of a bad second-half slump.
Besides, the Red Sox were already working on replacing Shaw. By dinner time, they reached an agreement with Moreland. The deal wasn't announced because Moreland must pass a physical, but it was confirmed by ESPN.com.
Moreland, 31, batted only .233 with 22 homers and a .720 OPS but won a Gold Glove at first base for the Texas Rangers this season. Along with third baseman Pablo Sandoval's return from shoulder surgery, he could help make up for the 38 homers and 127 RBIs that David Ortiz took into retirement.
Even Big Papi is a Moreland fan.
“I always believed that kid could be special," Ortiz said last weekend in the Dominican Republic during a discussion of Gold Glove winners. "It depends on how much [a team] plays him.”
But the move that set the winter meetings ablaze, the one that will have Red Sox fans talking about this day for years, was the blockbuster for Sale. The teams rekindled on-again, off-again discussions on Friday, when, according to Dombrowski, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn reduced his asking price.
"He said, 'We're going to get away from some of the things we've asked for in the past,'" Dombrowski said, likely referring to established big leaguers such as center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. "I said, 'Well, we're prepared to give up a lot, which we know.' And we went through some of the names."
It pained Dombrowski to trade Moncada, who is widely regarded as the top prospect in baseball, and Kopech, whose triple-digit fastball was the star of the Arizona Fall League. But Dombrowski has never shied away from bold, aggressive trades, and this was as bold as it gets.
Now the Red Sox will add Sale to a starting rotation that includes the current Cy Young Award winner (Rick Porcello) and a former recipient (David Price). If Sale isn't the best of the three, he could be the most consistent, having posted a 3.04 ERA and four top-five Cy Young finishes in the past four seasons.
A trio of aces doesn't guarantee a World Series ring. Just ask the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies (Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels) and the 2015 Washington Nationals (Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann). But the Red Sox will take their chances with this threesome, especially with the bitterness of being swept out of the division series still lingering.
"You never can tell what happens if you can, first of all, make it to the postseason. But secondly, if you get there, do you progress from there?" Dombrowski said. "We saw last year we did not. But we think [Sale] gives us the best chance to do it. And it's not just for a one-year type of deal."
Indeed, the Red Sox control Sale for three years at a total cost of $38 million. He will count only $6 million against the luxury tax next season. With Sale, Thornburg ($2.2 million, according to arbitration projections by MLB Trade Rumors) and Moreland (one year for $5.5 million), the Red Sox could stay under the $195 million threshold if, as expected, they unload one of their seven big-league starting pitchers, likely Clay Buchholz ($13.5 million).
What a day.
Even the rival New York Yankees tipped their cap.
"That's a wow," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "Boston's like the Golden State Warriors now of baseball."
We'll see about that. The Red Sox at least made themselves the favorites in the AL East, if not the entire American League.
All in one day.