Welcome to Plan A.
For years, the Red Sox’ offseason was often an exploration of a wide array of options to either address needs or upgrade. In the winter of 2009-10, for instance, the team examined the possibility of re-signing free agent outfielder Jason Bay while also engaging in talks with fellow free agent Matt Holliday to fill the position.
When the club couldn’t find a financial match with either player, the team jumped onto a different track that it had been laying, signing outfielder Mike Cameron and starter John Lackey to bolster its run prevention.
That approach – explore a multitude of options and strategic alternatives before choosing among them – was often, though not always, the preferred modus operandi of the Red Sox under general managers Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington.
Advertisement
This winter, it represents a distant memory.
The Red Sox’ latest trade on Monday, the acquisition of potentially dominant righthander Carson Smith and lefthanded swingman Roenis Elias from the Mariners in exchange for lefthander Wade Miley, represented the latest evidence of how president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski earned his reputation as one of the foremost deal-makers in the industry.
Consider Dombrowski’s description of what the team targeted and how it approached the deal.
“What we said to people, ideally what we’d like to have is a young bullpen arm that could pitch at the big league level for us right now to give us depth and a starting pitcher that gives us more protection, that’s either ready to pitch now or real close to pitching [in the big leagues],” said Dombrowski. “We really were able to acquire what we wanted to, but if somebody would have come back with an offer that would have helped us in other ways, we’re open minded. We didn’t know if we’d be able to get this or not. Seattle looked like -- there were other clubs that had interest, we talked to other people. But Seattle was the one club, it looked like it might fit for us in that regard because a lot of people didn’t have that type of depth.”
Advertisement
This sort of direct approach is a hallmark of Dombrowski’s cut-to-the-chase style that netted a deal on the first day of the winter meetings. The Red Sox are now being viewed as a team that wastes little time arriving at an end-point.
The Sox crossed the so-called point-of-pain threshold in their prospect package one day after the GM meetings to secure Craig Kimbrel. With David Price, the Sox’ first offer (seven years, $200 million) exceeded what any other team formally offered at any point in negotiations. With the Miley negotiations, the blunt definition of an ideal return permitted a swift sift through options to close the deal.
Dombrowski’s decisiveness was a widespread topic in the lobby of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, where Major League Baseball’s winter meetings are taking place. The exhaustive exploration of parallel paths, which sometimes resulted in excellent decisions and sometimes ended with the other party moving on, has given way to a relentless exploration of first options before, if necessary, a shift to Plan B.
Thus far, the Red Sox offseason has yet to arrive at a Plan B.
Follow Alex Speier on Twitter at @alexspeier.