Just by looking at some of the posts it appears I am in the minority that think this could be a good trade for the Sox.
I look at it 3 ways:
1. Yeah, we probably gave up too much in Allen, but it helps us in the long run because of Pena's age and salary. This pretty much shows us that Dotel won't be back next year, and could possibly be even traded. (I think I saw some mention the trade possibilities) I am not positive of Pena's arbitration status but I am sure he is going to be at least half as cheap as Dotel but will not have that much drop off in performance (price over performance).
2. I am not saying the Sox would have signed Dotel, but to either sign him or get someone close to his ability would have cost considerably more than Pena. With Linebrink already signed $5M in 2010 and $5.5M in 2011, Jenks up for arbitration, Thornton salary jumping to $2.2M in 2010 and $3M in 2011 our bullpen would be REALLY high salary-wise.
3. We seem to have a glutton of 1B/DH types in the minors and Allen must have been lower on their plans. The Sox might have seen enough of Beckham at 3B to leave him there, move Viciedo to 1B or Flowers to 1B/DH. Who knows.
One thing that does concern me is the left-handed bat issue. Outside of Jor. Danks most of our best minor league players are all right-handed. We will see what happens, but I usually trust KW.