He was acquired in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Mike Cameron. Had the Sox kept Cameron, who knows what would have happened. The team probably wouldn’t have won the World Series in 2005.
At the time of the trade, Cameron was 25 years old and had completed his fourth season in the MLB. The first two seasons were short; he played in only 39 games. But in the last two, he had 889 plate appearances and hit a slash of .234/.321/.383 with 22 home runs and 98 RBI.
He only played one season with the Reds before he was sent to the Seattle Mariners with several other players in one of the most memorable trades in MLB history: the one that brought Ken Griffey, Jr to Cincinnati.