Epstein is close friends with Kevin Towers, the new GM of the Diamondbacks, who was once Epstein’s superior in San Diego.
Towers said yesterday he is open to listening on all of his players, but he would have to be overwhelmed with an offer, as he was in San Diego two years ago when he traded Jake Peavy to the White Sox and helped reshape the Padres. Towers is a wheeler-dealer, so making a blockbuster wouldn’t be contrary to his DNA. But he said he would have to get some “major league-ready’’ players back.
Don’t discount a possible Sox deal with the Padres for Adrian Gonzalez, either. Even though Gonzalez had surgery on his shoulder and may not be ready to swing a bat until late March, this is a player that has always been perfect for the Red Sox.
Asked about filling needs, Epstein said, “Generally, I’d rather fill them through trades. When you make trades, you tend to capture players who are closer to the prime of their careers and are paying through t he acquisition cost for future performance. In free agency, often times you’re paying for past performance.
“That said, we’ll probably do a little bit of both. Ideally, you’d have a surplus of everything and you can make trades and fill all your needs and stay out of the free agent market. But that’s not the reality.
“The reality is free agency is a necessity at times for teams that try to compete every single year. Also, when there’s elite players available in free agency, that’s a great way to acquire talent. Because then you’re getting an elite player and you’re not surrendering your best young guys to get them.’’
Under a new “if asked, don’t tell’’ agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association concerning limiting information to the media on negotiations, it will be harder this offseason to determine the level of interest in free agents by a given team. The agreement was part of a collusion settlement; the union felt that GMs were too quick to dismiss negotiations publicly with free agents, thus limiting their value.
