God knows it seemed that way when Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein declined to renew his contract last October. The golden boy was gone, the ship was rudderless and mentor-turned-madman Larry Lucchino was left holding the strings.,So apparently it is not the end of the world after all.

God knows it seemed that way when Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein declined to renew his contract last October. The golden boy was gone, the ship was rudderless and mentor-turned-madman Larry Lucchino was left holding the strings.

Even though it was the off-season, this sudden powershift was bound to get an undue amount of attention. After all, the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics are all underacheiving, leaving Boston’s winter sports scene in the doldrums.

With this much mediocrity, the Red Sox front office situation was bound to get scrutinized from every angle. So what did Lucchino do? He had a troupe of fill-in GMs negotiate what could go down as the best trade of the winter.

Lucchino, along with Bill Lajoie, Craig Shipley, Lou Diamond Phillips and Jiminy Glick (so maybe those last two are a slight exaggeration),