Red Sox Hot Stove

It's fun being the defending champs. The Red Sox have just come off their second World Series title in four years, are stocked with a great blend of young talent and solid veterans, most of whom remain under contract for next year, and they've got the payroll flexibility to maintain their core for years to come. Time for Theo & Co. to sit back and plan his winter vacation, right?

Fat chance. You know the Sox aren't going to just sit pat this winter. In today's world of free agency, there are very few dynasties, and the best teams can drop to the back of the pack quicker than a Jonathan Papelbon fastball. In order to stay competitive teams need to constantly try to improve, whether its by going after younger major-league talent, restocking the farm system, or securing their best players for as long as possible.

So what is the 2008 version of the Boston Red Sox going to look like? I'll preface this by saying that Theo Epstein doesn't exactly consult with me on  a regular basis or anything, but I do have some ideas:

1.    Sign Mike Lowell? - Right now it looks like the chances of Mikey Lowell manning the hot corner in Boston next year stand at about 50-50. Lowell wants to stay in Boston. The Sox obviously would love to have him back. However, his age is an issue (he'll turn 34 this offseason), he'll be looking for a longer-term deal than the Sox would be comfortable offering (at least 3 years vs. the 2 years the Sox would likely offer), and coming off a career year he's likely to demand at least $13 million. The good news is that given all that, the lower-tier teams are basically out of the hunt. However, you can expect plenty of interest from National League contenders like the Astros, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Phillies. And they'd all be likely to pay what he's asking.

So what happens if Lowell (understandably) seizes his opportunity for a bigger payday? The Sox have a couple options:
        a.    A-Rod - The big pink elephant in the room would cost a FORTUNE, but its hard to argue with his statistics. Anybody else get at least a little excited at the prospect of a 3-4-5 of Papi-Manny-A-Rod? Its ok to admit it.
        b.    Miguel Cabrera - The Florida Marlins slugger, according to rumor, would move to first base, with Kevin Youkilis shifting back to third. This would be a downgrade defensively for the Sox, but Cabrera has Manny-like ability and is almost a decade younger than Lowell. He made $7.5 million this year, which would be a great bargain for his talent, but would be costly in trade with the Sox likely to have to give up some of their best young talent to get him.
        c.    Another first baseman? - With the market for first basemen pretty slim this offseason, the Sox might have an easier time moving Youkilis back to third and pursuing a first baseman. There are some options out there, but it would be difficult to match Lowell's production.

2.    Ship Manny - It feels like we go through this exercise every offseason, whether Boston openly pursues trade opportunities involving Manny (see A-Rod, Soriano, et al) or just offering him up for free on waivers, but this might be the year the Sox could actually move Manny in the last year of his contract (Boston has a club option for 2009 and 2010) which, at $20 million in 2008 is a lot more reasonable than it used to be. In return, they may be able to get some good young talent, a catcher to back up an aging Jason Varitek, and/or some bullpen help. Mostly it would be a salary dump, but would also free up a space in the outfield for Ellsbury and Coco. Think anyone would hit a "gapper" with an outfield of Ellsbury, Coco, and J.D. Drew? It would easily be the best defensive outfield in baseball, and keep some great speed in the lineup.

Of course, there's no way the Red Sox could handle losing both Manny and Lowell, but if an A-Rod deal goes through this starts to make a whole lot more sense.

3.    Pitching - A couple really interesting names have been bandied about, namely Dan Haren and Johan Santana. Where would they go, you might ask? In order to get either, the Sox would have to give up Lester and/or Buckholtz, and they're definitely not looking to do either. There's also plenty of room for improvements in the bullpen which, while very good this year, is always in need of an upgrade. The 2008 bullpen, as it stands right now, looks like this:

Julian Tavarez
Manny Delcarmen
Javier Lopez
Mike Timlin
Hideki Okajima
Kyle Snyder
Jon Papelbon

Timlin definitely showed his age this year (although props to him for picking it up in the stretch when the Sox really needed him) and Delcarmen looked solid in his first full year in the bigs, but for me is still a bit of a question mark.  Word on the street is that the Sox are also looking back in Japan for additional pitching after the success of Okajima and Dice-K this year.

After all that, you never really know what the Sox brass have up their collective sleeves. Most likely they'll show up in St. Pete's in March with someone none of us ever expected. One thing's for sure though: it sure is good to be the champs.