Just as there is a generation of fans who can hardly imagine a season when the Red Sox are not playing in October, so it has become a given that the Sox will make at least one major move in the offseason.
Just check some of the winter transactions of the last decade:
1997 - trade for Pedro Martínez
1998 - lose Mo Vaughn, sign Jose Offerman
1999 - trade for Carl Everett
2000 - sign Manny Ramírez
2001 - sign Johnny Damon
2002 - add Mike Timlin, Todd Walker, Bill Mueller, David Ortiz, and Bronson Arroyo
2003 - trade for Curt Schilling, sign Keith Foulke
2004 - lose Martínez, Derek Lowe, and Orlando Cabrera, sign Edgar Renteria, Matt Clement, and David Wells
2005 - trade for Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett, trade for Coco Crisp and Mark Loretta
2006 - win posting for, and sign, Daisuke Matsuza ka, sign J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo
Winning a World Series has hardly served as a braking influence on roster turnover. It did not have that effect in 2004, and change is again in the offing this winter, as general manager Theo Epstein and the Boston contingent head today to Nashville for baseball's winter meetings, which officially begin tomorrow.
Epstein's primary moves this offseason have been to preserve the status quo. He re-signed Schilling after the veteran righthander signaled his willingness to come back for significantly less money. He re-signed Lowell, who also left millions on the table when he accepted a take-it-or-leave-it three-year deal from the Sox. He reached terms with veteran setup man Timlin, although the club has yet to announce a deal. And he exercised contract options that assure the return of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and swingman Julian Tavarez.
But the Sox also have been engaged in serious negotiations with the Minnesota Twins about ace lefthander Johan Santana, who almost certainly will be traded in the coming days. After Santana rejected a reported four-year, $80 million offer from the Twins, Minnesota has been actively engaged in trying to move the two-time Cy Young Award winner.
Making a deal problematic for any team acquiring Santana is that because he is eligible for free agency after next season, any team dealing for him not only will be surrendering prime young players, they also need to sign him to a long-term contract extension.
Twins GM Bill Smith was already on his way to Nashville yesterday, but with the Yankees having elected to include prize pitching prospect Phil Hughes in a package that also includes center fielder Melky Cabrera, there were indications that Smith was planning to give the Sox one more chance to include either center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury or pitcher Clay Buchholz in the package the Sox would be willing to exchange for Santana.
