Red Sox Want To Re-Sign Players, Aware They Can't Replicate 2013
The Boston Red Sox would love to re-sign all of their free agents, but are aware that it would be impossible to replicate their 2013 season even if everyone returns.
"I think we have to go into this off-season with the same sort of general mindset and the same general philosophy," Ben Cherington said, "and that is to build as deep a roster as we possibly can, to be as balanced we possibly can. But if we try to simply replicate what happened this year, I don't know if that's possible.
"The general philosophy would still lead to us toward a lot of the same things we were looking for last year. But exactly how it plays out, we'll just have to see."
Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury are all free agents. All but Saltalamacchia received qualifying offers.
"That was felt when we got off the duck boats," added John Farrell. "This was that one last acknowledgement of a great run, to celebrate with millions of people here in the city. The reality hits as soon as our feet hit the ground, coming off those duck boats -- knowing that some things are going to be out of our control this off-season that could change the face of our roster. That's why you relish the moments and how special they are when a group of guys come together and achieve as they did.
"Hopefully, we're able to retain all of them. But that might not work out."