“I think the closer you get to certain situations, the more often you fail,’’ Epstein said yesterday about the trade that sent Cla Meredith and Josh Bard to San Diego for Doug Mirabelli. “I firmly believe that had I not gone on the road trip with the team and been exposed to that panic or been sucked into it, we wouldn’t have made the trade. I got too close to it, so we over-prioritized the rest of the season, we over-prioritized the next start [by Tim Wakefield], and made a bad trade.
“We focused too much on the extreme short term and not enough on the future. And that’s something every organization does and goes through. I think it’s important how you respond to it, if you learn from it. We’ve made our share of mistakes certainly, but it’s just as important to learn from it and use that to become part of the discipline going forward.’’
With such lessons in mind, Epstein and the Sox head into the most active portion of the offseason with this week’s winter meetings. Though the Sox already have added a piece for 2010 and beyond - signing shortstop Marco Scutaro - there remains a long way to go. They still need a left fielder, starting pitching, bullpen help, and bench players.
And on the menu just might be a blockbuster deal. Roy Halladay is on the market, though the Sox aren’t likely to get the Toronto ace unless the price drops. Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez might be available for the right package. But the Sox tend to value their own prospects - occasionally overvaluing them - and are not known for making the major offseason deal.
It’s a thin line
There is a balance to be struck, a thin line between doing too much and too little, as an organization determines the best course of action in the offseason and at the trading deadline. Then again, Epstein makes it simple: “In balancing present and future, you really have to start with the future.
“I’d say 90 percent of our time as baseball operations is spent trying to build the foundation and build our long-term outlook. Ten percent of our time is spent maximizing our competitiveness in any one particular year.
