Seeing error of ways, Sox designate Lugo

“I think ownership has been consistent that we’ll do what we need to do to keep the best possible team on the field,’’ Epstein said yesterday. “A sunk cost is a sunk cost. We’re sorry it didn’t work out better with Julio, obviously. But keeping him on the team wasn’t going to change that. Sometimes the best organizations admit their mistakes and they move on. And that’s what we’re doing here.

“This was one of the free agent signings that doesn’t work out. We were paying for past performance, not current performance. That’s the true definition of a mistake, and, as the decision-maker, that’s on me. We’ll just move on and be a better organization having gone through it, and we’ll make better decisions going forward.’’

With the Red Sox likely to eat approximately $13.5 million of Lugo’s remaining contract, that makes about $24.5 million the Epstein regime has had to pay out to nonproducing free agent shortstops (Lugo and Edgar Renteria) after they were no longer with the Red Sox.

Lugo had arrived in Toronto late Thursday night, and Epstein and manager Terry Francona talked to him briefly. They had a more in-depth conversation yesterday. The Sox had simply become more comfortable with having Nick Green and Lowrie split a job that seemed a detriment with Lugo on the field.

Not that that was a new phenomenon.

“It started poorly from before Day 1,’’ Epstein said. “He called us over the winter after we signed him. He said he had a sickness or a stomach issue where he lost 15 or 20 pounds. When he showed up, he lacked a lot of strength and some quickness, but particularly his strength was just gone. It got him off on the wrong foot. He never with us was the player he was with Tampa. We tried a lot of things to get the best out of him.