J. Upton, as I said in the original post that no one paid any attention, would have waived the no trade clause for the 5 year extension at about base 17M.
Amazing how many people don't have a clue how no-trade dynamics work. J. Upton's agent would provide the list each year to reflect the teams that he felt J. Upton would most likely be traded to so he'd have more leverage for an extension. The agent knew the Red Sox were pitiful in the corner OF for 2013, the list is submitted around the first of the year, and they also knew that BJ Upton was on the Braves. Thus the Braves were not on the no-trade. The teams that were on it would have to agree to a large extension to get J. Upton to waive that clause, which he would have. Business talks for any player, and would have trumped fraternity.
Oh, well, now there will be a weaker 2013 OF than 2012 OF (subtract Ross, add Gomes, and Ellbury was horrible after getting half the season to not play until he was 200%, and Shane who is a fair CF'er as a bogus corner OF'er)
How Cherry spends over 150 million on labor and ends up with old Ortiz, a pretzel prima donna in CF, a CF'er in RF, garbage in LF, a 10M cost S. Drew who has permanently damaged bad wheel and has been in two landfills and any boost from Fenway on splits will be wiped out by terrible SS defense range, and Dumpster, the guy who no one else wanted who was an AL bust on the cheap rental months in TX, how 150M plus is spend again and that's the active roster construction is so bad you couldn't make it up.
Red Sox got older, worse, and fail to understand how to construct a roster in Fenway for $100 to 120M a year and get results like the Cardinals.
No, I'm not a Cardinals fan.