On July 22/09 we traded Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland for LaRoche.
On July 31/09 we traded LaRoche for Kotchman.
Theo was having a bit of a silly spell.
Another point you may want to consider on the asterisk thing: in Manfred's report on the Red Sox 2018 sign stealing, it explicitly says that it did not occur in the postseason.
I read the comments section in the Globe story about JBJ leaving the team. It was a mixed reaction to say the least. There were a lot of people calling him a lousy hitter and an overrated player.
I don't really get how you're framing this. Just that you're leaving out that keeping Betts for 2019 would also mean getting virtually nothing for him.
I think you have to give Friedman his due. I believe that when he made this trade he figured he had a shot at signing Mookie to an extension, and that was an integral part of why he did it.