As joepepsi laid out, two reasonable scenarios in this specific discussion are 1) Braun in LF through 2015, no Lester ... 2) Gamel in LF through 2016*, Lester as #1 SP While it's certainly possible that Gamel could be used to add a SP, he alone wouldn't be capable of returning someone of Lester's quality. Going by WAR, Lester averages about one win better than Braun over the past 3 years (5.7 vs. 4.6). One win is something, but it's not enough risk premium for me, especially since I don't know if Lester is going to get any better than he already is and I think Braun has at least one 5 WAR season in him in the near future. Braun might have a 5 WAR season in him, but that's largely going to depend on whether he puts the work in to become a less horrible defender. Lester has already had three 5 WAR seasons in him, and projects to have many more left. This isn't much of a question for me; Lester is clearly the more valuable player imo. I'd be willing to trade that extra season that Braun has on his contract for the better player at the much more difficult position. I think that if we ran this idea past RedSoxfan.net, they'd think it was a bad idea for the Sawx. * -- just my estimate of how long Gamel is under team salary control... could be wrong