NDIANAPOLIS — Red Sox GM Theo Epstein met with the media to discuss what has been accomplished at the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. He will be leaving tomorrow morning, shortly after the Rule 5 draft, and he doesn’t anticipate that any major moves will occur before departing. Presumably, that would include anything to do with either Jason Bay (whose agent, Joe Urbon, has not met with Epstein today) or Matt Holliday (whose agent, Scott Boras, has met with Epstein today, armed with books on the outfielder).
Indeed, Epstein said that one of the foremost accomplishments of the meetings to date has been the club’s ability to rule out and narrow down some of its options, and to eliminate potential free agents or trade targets from its shopping list. He did offer the following specifics, including:
–The club has one potential non-tender candidate for salary arbitration. Epstein declined to identify the individual, but in all likelihood, the candidate is first baseman Casey Kotchman, who made $2.25 million in 2009, and would be due a bump in salary arbitration, despite not having a starting role.
–The Sox have already achieved some improvement in its defense with the acquisition of Marco Scutaro, who is superior to the combined group that the Sox had at the position last year, but that it was certainly open to doing more. That said, he said that the team would likely have to choose between adding offense or defense at this point.
–Prospect Josh Reddick is likely to spend more time in Triple A to start the year, and that he would benefit from further development. Epstein described the 22-year-old as unlikely to ever have high walks totals, but that he makes consistent hard contact and plays good defense.
Highlights of his media session follow:
