There was tremendous excitement around Yawkey Way for at least 24 hours, because it appeared that after days of poring through scouting reports and statistical, financial, and medical data, after a couple of deals fell through, after the Yankees had made their big splash with Bobby Abreu, the Red Sox were close to landing one of the top pitchers in the game.
They thought they had Houston's Roy Oswalt.
It would have been the classic ``take that" response to the Yankees.
The Sox were willing to go pretty far by giving up one or two of their untouchables -- a list that included Jon Lester, Craig Hansen, and Manny Delcarmen -- as well as one or two everyday players. They stepped in when it appeared that the Astros' attempt to secure the Orioles' Miguel Tejada in a package for Oswalt, Willy Tavarez, and Adam Everett failed. Oswalt (8-7, 3.23 ERA), who earns $11 million, has one more year of arbitration eligibility before he becomes a free agent and perhaps gets too pricey for the Astros.
``There was some excitement around here for a few hours," said a Sox official. ``You add Oswalt to Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, now that's an unbeatable rotation. There was a lot of disappointment when it fell through."
The rejection left the Sox asking the Astros whether Roger Clemens was available and being told by Houston owner Drayton McLane that he was off-limits.
``If Drayton would have said yes to a trade, it would have been some story," said Randy Hendricks, Clemens's agent. ``My only regret is that the whole plan was to get Roger on a mound healthy in October. Now, he will be healthy in October, but probably not on any mound."
Manager Terry Francona said at his daily 4 p.m. press briefing that Theo Epstein had informed him there would be no deals. The Sox decided to protect their kids, for better or worse. Whether this will be the right choice for 2006 is anyone's guess. The Sox made a dramatic four-team deal involving Nomar Garciaparra two years ago at the trading deadline, and went on to win their first World Series in 86 years.
Last year, other than some Manny RamÃrez rumors, they stood pat. This year, they were in on virtually every opportunity out there and elected to walk away.
``That was pretty much everything," said Epstein of not wanting to give up prospects. ``We have a long-term plan, and as much as we desperately wanted to do something to help our big-league team, it would have been shortsighted to sacrifice that long-term plan in order to incrementally increase our chances this year.
``We were asked over and over again for a lot of our good young players -- good young players at the major league level who are part of our long-term plan -- and it just wasn't worth it.
