UPDATE: There was a salary calculation mistake in the original post. The source data for the correction has been provided
With the mega-trade that went down on Saturday between the Red Sox and Dodgers, we may have to redefine the word “blockbuster.” Today on Baseball Prospectus, I break it all down (see Bizball: The Priciest Trade Ever Made). Here’s ten must-know details around the trade, via the article:

1. The Red Sox are moving a total of $262.5 million off the books
2. No trade has ever involved two players who each had more than $100 million remaining on their contracts (Gonzalez and Crawford).
3. The only other trade in which a player was traded with at least $100 million left on his contract was Alex Rodriguez going from the Rangers to the Yankees in February of 2004.
4. In terms of the number of players involved, it’s the most in Dodger history
5. It ties as the second-most in Red Sox history (trades with nine players have now happened three times, on October 11, 1971 the club traded 10): Jim Lonborg, Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro, Joe Lahoud, George Scott, and Don Pavletich to the Milwaukee Brewers for Marty Pattin, Lew Krausse, Tommy Harper, and minor leaguer Pat Skrable.
6. For 2012, the Dodgers had an Opening Day player payroll of $105,419,833
7. If the Dodgers were to exercise all of their club options for Juan Rivera, Todd Coffey, and Matt Treanor, when added to the $58.25 million in salary that Gonzalez ($21 million), Crawford ($20 million), Beckett ($15.75 million), and Punto ($1.5 million) add to the picture, payroll next season would be $241.7 million. Throw in dead money from Manny Ramirez ($8.333 million) and Andruw Jones ($3.2 million) and you get $194,983,333
8. The Luxury Tax threshold for 2013 is $178 million.
9. Average attendance for the Dodgers is up 4,572 per game to 41,469 from 36,897 at the same point last season.
10. The Dodgers finished under 3 million in paid attendance last season for the first time since 1995.

Purple represents option years
See a mountain of details at the Baseball Prospectus link: Bizball: The Priciest Trade Ever Made

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He writes for Baseball Prospectus and is a contributor to Forbes. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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Great Facts
written by a guest, August 27, 2012

Great facts Maury. There's an interesting theory being floated by Grantland today that the Dodgers are just completely busting through any arbitrary spending limit set by the luxury tax. The sky's the limit - why not spend $350, $400, $500M on payroll, if the revenues can support it?

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8306109/financial-concern-window-comes-new-dodgers-regime

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