By Gary Dzen/Boston.com Staff
The Red Sox sent shock waves through the baseball world by trading Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers for James Loney and prospects. Boston unloaded $270 million in contracts in the process, wiping the slate of an underperforming team nearly clean. Now what? The trade represents a starting point rather than an end point. General manager Ben Cherington (left) is now left to build a contender, and he'll likely do it without adding a superstar. How do the Red Sox get back into contention?