With the acquisition of Cliff Floyd, the Boston Red Sox have added a potent bat and strong arm to the outfield in their bid for the postseason.

The Sox have also added to their roster one of the intriguing stories of the baseball year.

Cliff Floyd is the poster player for the new MLB.

Floyd started the season with the Florida Marlins. They are the team now owned by Jeffrey Loria, the former owner of the Montreal Expos. Loria has sought to dump salaries with the Marlines all season and Floyd was one of those dumped.

On July 11, Floyd was traded to the Expos, a team now run by Major League Baseball. At the time of the deal, the Expos had a shot at the postseason.

MLB said it would run the Expos just as any other owner trying to win.

MLB placed a salary limit on the team, but Expos General Manager Omar Minya was able to do the Floyd deal and still stay under the salary cap. Three weeks after the deal, the Expos are now realistically out of the running for the postseason.

So, the team run by Major League Baseball did what all other owners of nonplayoff teams do: dump salaries.

There goes Floyd again.

Interestingly, Floyd’s third team of the year is the Sox. John Henry, who owned the Marlins last year, now owns the Sox.

Henry was one of Floyd’s biggest boosters when they were both in Florida. It was Henry who went out and acquired Floyd from Montreal when he assumed ownership of the Marlins.

Take a sip of coffee and stay with me now.

Prior to the start of the season, Commissioner Bud Selig had a problem. He had a lot of problems and still does but this was a big one.

Selig wanted to contract Montreal, but owner Loria was going to fight any such attempt. So Selig finagled a deal.

Loria would be paid for the Expos by MLB. Loria would get to purchase another team. Selig went searching for that other team and found that John Henry, then owner of the Marlins, wanted to own the Sox.

Selig got involved in the Sox sale. Ultimately, the Sox were sold for less than the highest bid. The Sox, through then-operating trustee John Harrington, said the lower bid was accepted because it was seen as being in the best interest of the Sox on a long-term basis.

The lower bid, of course, came from the John Henry group. Henry got the Sox. Loria got the Marlins. MLB took over the Expos so they could contract them: i.e., read that to mean sell them so all the owners could split the profits.

And now Floyd ends up in Boston. Hmmm.

There is a concept in business ethics called “avoiding the appearance of evil.”

The Floyd deal may be just what it appears to be on its face: a late-season baseball deal where a team out of the playoff hunt dumps salary to a team with playoff aspirations.

On the other hand, after all that has gone on in this square of MLB involving the Sox, the Expos, and the Marlins, one can reasonably wonder if this was part of the overall deal, too.

Commissioner Selig is the man in the middle. Since Major League Baseball is operating the Expos and in light of the web of connections surrounding the Floyd trade to the Sox, a simple statement of assurance that Selig stayed out of this deal and that the trade had nothing to do with the previous team ownership transactions would be welcomed.

Everybody would still have the choice to believe what they wished, but at least it would show that Major League Baseball gives credence to its ethical obligations that are essential to maintaining the integrity of the game.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.