"One of the reasons I've been hopefully somewhat successful in the entertainment industry is that I have enormous respect for talent, and I hope I'm pretty good at picking it out," Werner said as rain forced the first full-squad workout of spring training indoors. "Nomar Garciaparra is enormously talented and I'm sensitive to what he said. I believe we'll continue to talk to him directly and hopefully this will pass quickly."
But since it may not, the Sox are prepared to relax their policy against negotiating with prospective free agents during the season, according to team president and CEO Larry Lucchino. Garciaparra ranks with Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, and Jason Varitek as the team's most prominent potential free agents.
"Most of the experience I've had in recent years, we've tried to live with that policy during the season," Lucchino said after arriving in camp with Werner. "But it's a policy we set, so hopefully it's a policy we can adjust."
All four core players have said they have seen little progress in reaching agreements on multiyear contract extensions, though Sox officials expect the talks to heat up in the coming weeks. Still, general manager Theo Epstein has made clear the team cannot afford to re-sign all four franchise players.
The Sox' payroll for this season already has exceeded $125 million, Werner said, surpassing the luxury tax threshold of $120.5 million. And Werner said the players might need to make some market concessions to remain in Boston.
"We hope we can sign most of them," he said. "We also hope we have the benefit of a hometown discount. We're also aware that some of these players are going to want to play out the year. If they play out the year, we still think we'll have a very good chance to sign them at the end of the year. Just because we don't sign them in March doesn't mean that they won't be playing for the Red Sox."
Asked if he believed it would be difficult to strike a deal with Garciaparra involving a hometown discount after the offseason controversy, Werner said, "No, I actually think Nomar wants to play for the Red Sox, so I hope we can get to a deal that is fair to both sides."
