Let The Winter Meetings Begin...

This post's title (there is no "it") refers to the annual Winter Meetings, Major League Baseball's meet and greet and wheel and deal week for every team to better themselves. Of course, the Boston Red Sox are absolutely no exception. Sox General Manager Theo Epstein had this to say...

“The meetings are important because it’s the signal for the industry to go ahead and get stuff done,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. “Agents engage and teams engage with each other, which is rarer than you think. It’s not every day you get to talk trade with other teams. It’s hard to pin teams down and hard to find two teams willing to be aggressive at the same time. It’s a not-so-subtle push to the industry to go ahead and get some things done.”

A left fielder with pop in his bat....Jason Bay? I read in the Boston Herald (thanks BH) that the Red Sox, who have already offered him a four year deal worth $60 million, would go as high as a five year contract for $80 million. Yes, he is THAT valuable to the team. If he wants to come back here and try, with his teammates and friends, to win it all, well, this is the place. As for Holliday, neither he or Bay are in any great hurry, so I'm pretty sure Boston won't be in any hurry either. His agent is (OH BOY) Scott Boras, who always waits until the very last moment. So hold that thought...for now.

The Red Sox know that they can NEVER have enough starting pitching so they'll be on the lookout for another rotation arm. Lackey? Way too expensive ($100 millionish) for an arm over thirty years of age. Roy "Doc" Halladay will also have a huge price tag, this time in players, not dollars. The Boston Red Sox will look at others. One thing is certain, at least to me...there will be another starting pitcher on the 2010 staff. If one guy goes down for ANY reason during the 2010 season, we'd be covered.

The Boston bullpen has lost Wagner and Saito, so look for Theo to find and sign two experienced bullpen guys, maybe one of them a Type A free agent (they would have to give up a second round pick to land him). I don't envision them signing two Type A's because they already have signed another Type A, our new shortstop, Marco Scutaro. We'll all see what Theo has up his sleeves. Magic? I'm looking forward to it, in fact. Surprise me, Mr. Epstein...please.

That's it for this sudden Monday morning, my birthday week (the 10th). Thanks for stopping in to my little corner of the "blue nowhere." You can click on the title of this post for more on the Sox from SI dot com and as always, BE WELL. Your comments are welcome.