After much hemming and hawing, the dust has finally settled and 6 players have swapped teams. The Sox traded third base prospect Ande Marte, reliever Guillermo Mota, and catching prospect Kelly Shoppach + some $/PTBNL to the Indians in exchange for center fielder Covelli “Coco” Crisp, relief pitcher David Riske, and catcher Josh Bard. The most talked about of the new guys is, of course, Coco. As much as I’d like to have kept Marte, I think this is a good trade. His 0-for-15 stint in the majors aside, Shoppach is a good prospect who wasn’t going anywhere soon with Varitek holdin’ down the fort. Bard, meanwhile, should be a useful backup for us. Mota has some health concerns. Riske has been a consistently good reliever for years now, and should be a nice addition to our much-improved bullpen. (Blaine Neal says “Hi.”) Marte projects to be a good to awesome 3B, but that’s just speculation and Crisp is a pretty good CF right now. All told, I think it’s been a pretty good off-season. I’m in favor of starting the season with Alex Cora at short-stop and letting the chips fall. Spring Training is on our doorstep!