News flash: The Red Sox would be willing to move an overpriced, underperforming, aging starter

For some unknown reason, the news that the Red Sox are shopping Josh Beckett seems to be surprising some people.

Nationally known baseball writers are treating it as if the Red Sox are shocking the world, and as if there's some reason they WOULDN'T be shopping Beckett.

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the market is pretty thin on their former "ace." There are a few issues that make him nearly untradeable.

• Beckett is owed approximately $38M over the next 2+ seasons.
• He's been a terrible pitcher since September 1 of last year.
• He's viewed as a clubhouse problem with a terrible attitude.
• He has the right to veto any trade, because of his 10-and-5 rights.

The Braves and Rangers are a couple of teams that have been mentioned as possibly being interested in Beckett, although it looks like the Braves have already removed themselves from the running.

The Red Sox would love to move Beckett, for obvious reasons. They're clearly not going anywhere this year, and they have no need for his bloated salary and declining performance.

However, if they trade him, it's likely that they'll have to pay the bulk of his remaining salary.

Assuming the Sox would have to pay at least $28M of his deal, which is very likely, a deal involving Beckett suddenly makes very little sense.

While he's not exactly a stud anymore, Beckett still has substantial upside. He has talent, somewhere in there, and he's still capable of being a solid #2-3 starter.

Could the Red Sox do better than that with the $10M that they'd save over the next few years? It's not terribly likely.

The Red Sox definitely need to start fresh, and getting rid of Beckett might be a good way to do that. However, if a deal isn't going to make a lot of financial sense, they need to pump the brakes and wait for something to present itself.