Marte was considered the top prospect at AAA coming into this season with the potential to be a star at 3B. It can be argued that the Crisp trade bartered away the future when Ellsbury and/or Murphy would have been ready to hold down CF at the end of Damon's 4 years. What will happen with Crisp when Ellsbury is ready? Crisp doesn't have enough power to hold down a corner spot.
Not making any predictions or comparisons. I haven't seen the guy throw a single pitch, so I'm not going to bury him because of his prior affiliation with KC. I'll wait to see what he can do, but I am not at all hopeful that he can fill the void.
He may be really bad, but Red Ruffing was 39-93 with the Red Sox (the Royals of their day) and he went on to a HOF career with the Yankees winning almost 300 games over his career.