Excerpt: "The Lester Confluence"

"My argument in all of these cases, which is relevant to the Red Sox and Lester, is as follows: even if you want to retain the player, trade him away. You guarantee yourself the talent acquired in trade, you can still go out and sign the player in the free-agent market, and when you pursue him you should be in a stronger position to convince the player to rejoin your team because of the prospects acquired in return."