The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers have completed one of the biggest trades in the long, storied histories of each franchise, and the biggest in Beantown since Babe Ruth was shipped to the New York Yankees.

The blockbuster nine-player deal, involving more than $270 million in moving salaries and an immeasurable amount of culture change for both clubs, has been completed, the clubs finishing just before Saturday's 1:30 p.m. ET deadline to consummate the waiver deal.

Headed from Fenway Park to Chavez Ravine: first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett, outfielder Carl Crawford, infielder Nick Punto and about $12 million in cash.

Going from Los Angeles to Boston: first baseman James Loney - who is eligible for free agency after this season - young pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr. and outfielder Jerry Sands.

Analysis: A bad deal for both sides?

Gonzalez will be in the lineup tonight at Dodger Stadium, clad in the No. 23 once worn by Kirk Gibson, against the Miami Marlins.

In supplanting Loney, he gives the Dodgers a menacing presence in the middle of the order to pair with Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. But coming with him are the toxic contracts of Crawford (owed $103 million through 2017) and Beckett ($32 million in 2013 and '14), who struggled with injuries, poor performance and the occasional controversy the past two seasons in Boston.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, get massive financial relief and a chance to re-formulate the chemistry in a clubhouse gone foul the past two seasons.

It also is a stunning bit of backpedaling less than two seasons after they signed Crawford and traded for Gonzalez, guaranteeing both $294 million.

The Red Sox will fail to make the playoffs in both seasons with Crawford and Gonzalez. And it is the latter's acquisition that may haunt the Red Sox's efforts to rebuild.

To acquire Gonzalez in December 2011, the Red Sox sent top-shelf prospects in first baseman Anthony Rizzo and pitcher Casey Kelly to the San Diego Padres. Rizzo since has blossomed into a crucial part of the Chicago Cubs' rebuilding efforts.

Both Rizzo and Kelly were drafted under the previous collective bargaining agreement's draft rules, in which clubs such as Boston could lavish large signing bonuses on hard-to-sign players later in the draft. Now, Boston's farm system is bereft of top-shelf prospects, and it won't be able to flex its financial might in the amateur arena as it once did.

But they do gain the chance to redo their payroll, roster and clubhouse.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, just completed a huge revamp, amid the heat of a pennant race rather than the slightly more calculating period of the offseason.

They are 2 1/2 games behind the San Francisco Giants in the National League West. And only Gonzalez represents a true, immediate upgrade in their 2012 playoff quest.

Crawford is out for this season, and perhaps the start of 2013, after having Tommy John elbow surgery Thursday. While Beckett may get a boost moving from the American League to the more pitcher-friendly NL West, his 5.23 ERA and enduring struggles hardly make him an upgrade over the Dodgers' current rotation.

But the mere upgrade of Gonzalez over Loney -- 15 home runs and an .812 on-base plus slugging compared to four and .646 -- can't be underestimated in the short term.

And the bigger-picture specter of this deal is that new managing partner Mark Walter -- forget Magic Johnson for a minute -- appears willing to spend until the Dodgers are winners.

Walter spent $2.15 billion on the team. However, the Dodgers are cable TV free agentsand could command upward of $5 billion in their next local broadcast deal.

So expect much, much more of the same in coming years, particularly since the Dodgers, as currently constructed, are a flawed club with a fallow farm system.

And if they become the Evil Empire West? Well, that's OK with manager Don Mattingly.

"Are you playing within the rules? That's what I always looked at," Mattingly, a Yankees legend, told the Los Angeles Times. "They used to say all that about the Yankees. If you don't like it, change the rules.

"It was kind of a little rock show. Everywhere you went, you caused that little buzz. That's the way the Dodgers should be. I'll be honest with you: To me, when the Dodgers come to town, it should be THE DODGERS."