Sorry, I meant Angels not A's. I have them for 90 plus wins, with the Rangers at 88. I have the Yankees and Rays in the 84-88 wins area. I have the Red Sox slightly below at 83.
I would argue that come June, the Red Sox would be better off with Ellsbury in LF, and Bradley in CF with Gomes as a bench bat. That defense would save a lot of runs, probably more than Gomes can produce with his bat.
I have the Jays, Rangers, and Tigers as better teams than the Red Sox, with the Yankees, Rays, and A's as only marginally better. If things break right, I could see the Red Sox grabbing a wild card spot.
Hard to argue with this logic, even if it means you'd reject a trade for a 10 WAR player because he isn't a pitcher.
All of the pitchers you just listed are going to require contracts of that size to retain them.
I think the likely scenario is Middlebrooks gets traded when Bogaerts is moved off short. He'll have more value as a trade chip then he would as a low .800 OPS first baseman.