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General Managers meetings: Ben Cherington talks Jason Bay, hitting coaches, search for outfielders 11.07.12 at 9:44 pm ET
By Rob Bradford

Ben Cherington

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – The General Managers meetings often times result in offseason transactions. It’s just that it almost always takes some time after the executives leave the two-day event for anything to come to fruition.

Wednesday at the Hyatt, the process of laying offseason foundations began, with Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington joining the fray with the usual series of get-togethers with other GMs and agents.

In the midst of the meetings Cherington and the other general managers broke off for a brief interview session with the attending media. Here is what the Red Sox GM had to report:

REGARDING ANY POTENTIAL INTEREST IN FREE AGENT JASON BAY

Certainly surprised it didn’t go better for him in New York. He’s a terrific guy, and he he’s been a great for a long time so I expected him to do well. I don’t know the particulars of why it didn’t work out, but I have a lot or respect for him and hopefully he will find a better situation. … We haven’t talked about it yet. We can’t rule anything out.

ON INTEREST IN TORII HUNTER (OR OTHER FREE AGENT OUTFIELDERS)

I would say if there’s an area of the free agent class that’s a little bit deeper, it’s probably in the outfield. We’ve talked to a lot of those guys, or at least the agents of a lot of those guys. It’s probably still a little bit of a feeling out period for both the players and the teams. We’ll see how it moves forward, but we’ve been in contact a number of outfielders.

TARGET TWO OUTFIELDERS IN OFFSEASON?

Probably. Maybe it’s through trade. Maybe it’s through free agency, but it’s definitely something we need to add.

ON MULTIPLE HITTING COACHES

We are considering a two-man system. It depends a bit on who the first guy is, and then if the right complement is there, someone we’d consider — there’s pros and cons to both approaches. Depending on who the people are, we see some benefit to having two people. It’s a big job, trying to give appropriate attention to all 13 position players on the team, and requires a lot of time, and it’s something we’re considering.

ON HOW SUCH A SYSTEM CAN WORK

They ought to complement each other, certainly. There ought to be some philosophical alignment but perhaps some different personality, background. … I think both ways can work. It’s just that there’s some guys — Mags is one of them — that can do a good job on their own, basically on their own. It’s a big job, so we’ll see where it goes.

WHAT LOOKED FOR A PITCHING COACH (HAVING HIRED JUAN NIEVES)

Certain traits and philosophical leanings that we were looking for — we need to get to being a more aggressive pitching staff, attacking the strike zone. But there’s things that need to happen to a pitcher before you get to that as far as delivery and mental approach, and we thought Juan brought a good program to the table. Also, we wanted a strong voice with some conviction. I know that’s something that John wanted, given his experience as a pitching coach. He wanted someone who’s going to have a strong voice that’s going to stand up to him. John wants to be able to be able to empower a pitching coach and not just have an assistant. That was something we felt Juan could do. …

One of the things we liked about his presentation was that it was really an individualized presentation. Not everything works for every guy. There are times that probably a quicker tempo is a benefit. We saw it with [Felix] Doubront late in the year. Our staff made the adjustment with him about his tempo, and he saw some benefit in his last couple of starts. It’s case by case. That’s one of the things set out in the interview with Juan, that he can take an individualized approach with each guy.

ON TRADE TALKS

We’ve had more talks. I wouldn’t say we’ve furthered anything, but we’ve talked more. It’s still probably a little bit early on in the trade stuff to really do that, but we’ll continue discussions. … Nothing surprised me.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/tristan.winslow.5 Tristan Winslow

    This idiot is probally gonna sign Blanton? What happened to upgrading our pitching staff?

  • Tommyfreitag70

    Ben needs to find a way to get Justin Upton as red Sox future number3 hitter and right fielder

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZVFM2HRNC5CTO2OUXD4XTX65O4 Dennis

     Right now, the Sox need two outfielders. Unless Cherington can get two good ones quickly, he may have to keep Ellsbury. 

  • Ggtroy

    Of course you mean two OF who won’t block Brentz, Bradley and maybe even Bogaerts in 2014. That could mean Choo and Kalish. If Ells goes, (who could again be the best OF in baseball this season) we will need 3 OF. I hope we hang onto him. It’s a matter of being patient now as the right deals emerge for 1B, OF and SP. By the numbers, any combination of Hunter, Choo, Swisher, Napoli, Youk, Davis, Sanchez, Jackson, Haren, etc., and normal injury season = a contending team in 2013.

  • Giraud

    Into ad hominem attacks much? I heard Ben and crew are talking with Haren, Sanchez, Jackson, Hudson, Lincecum, Marcum, Floyd, Johnson, Masterson. Also that final discussions, wisely, were on hold until Farrell and Nieves were in place for their input before the GM meetings, now ongoing. I also heard
    some intelligent talk of signing great arms like
    McCarthy and Harden to generous minor
    league deals as they rehab from their
    surgeries, but nothing about Blanton? With Morales, DLR, Hernandez, Wright, Webby and Workman in the wings, I doubt
    they are looking for a 4 or 5 at this point. They have $$, choices, motivation, and an enhanced inner circle of Bill James and coaches. We are in good hands.

  • Kenkarken

    This jackass never really answered anything! Oh we’ll consider and probably is all he can say. BUFFON!

  • Donalmcl

    NOOOOOO Bay

  • Grygor_c

    Geez, Cherington sounds just like Bill Bellicheck.  Says a lot about nothin!

  • Mujo

     That’s the key to success in Boston, or to politics in general. You don’t have to lie, just don’t tell the truth. Don’t give the media anything to use. Its clearly the route to success.

  • Useyourhead

    That’s the point, if you express interest in a potential player on the air you lose leverage.  It seems the one who spells buffoon like buffon, is indeed the buffoon (Kenkarken).  Ben inherited quite the mess from Theo and he is taking the proper steps to bringing us back to 2003-2008 form.  But we have to remember what it was like in 2000-2002, very frustrating.  We, the fans, need to keep our composure and be realistic.

  • Doug

    Why can’t the FO or you Ben, give us an explanation of what happened in the pitching coaches meeting, everyone was looking forward to Peterson, you or others in your employ said he’s “in”, now it somebody else, Nieves………what gives at least give us an explanation of why you didn’t hire Peterson.  Common courtesy goes a long ways with the fans.

  • Doug

    Catching is so darn important, and the fact that we haven’t made any public overtures to A.J. Pierzynski is self defeating, the best catcher by farr iin the FA pool and we don’t contact him, are you satisfied with the Strikout machine named Salty?  Come on get on the horn with Chicago immediately, also Billy Ripkek was saying Tulo wouuld hit 75 homers in Fenway, have you called him yet, or are you thinking Iggy will explode out of the box and get 5 this year?

  • Doug

    Yeah it’s the new American Way! we’ll end up with another AAA team with the same old cliches “we’re working on it” We have a chance to get at least a 50 HR guy at SS and we haven’t made any calls to him!  Hello Ben call up A.J. Pierzynski along with La Roche and others we need, quit giving crumbs to the media, you know they will create a Babe Ruth out of a Darnell McDonald, so just eliminate the Murdoch Press and go straight to the fans, they would appreciate it more than being fed a phony bill of goods from the so called media.

  • Useyourhead

    Doug, you are a damn fool.  Everything you just said was ridiculous.  One of our biggest problems was clubhouse moral, and you want to bring in a hot head like A.J.?  Are you crazy?  Do you have any idea how much it would take to acquire Tulo?  Then you have to pay him, what? like 18 mil/year.  Then you have a power hitting SS, great, because those are necessary to win world series.  Oh wait, if we used the players it would take to acquire Tulo to go after what we really need, an ace or strong number two, we might actually increase the number of wins in ’13.

    Damn fool!!

  • Jim

    It’s my understanding the Sox are trying to lure Carl Yastrezemski out of retirement to put in Left Field next season.

  • Schwank

    One of theose two OF’s is probably Ross.  If he doesn’t sign they will have more work to do.  Baseball is alot like attitude.  Personally I don’t think they have to far to go to get back into contention again.  Improved attitude can help. But they do need another starter, another reliever, a 1B and two OF’s.  One of either the 1B or OF needs to be a banger to compliment Ortiz and Middlebrooks. 

  • Schwank

    I swear this stuff is made up.  Example:  Writer asks Ben about Bay.  Ben answers in a politcally correct manner and BOOM it’s interpreted as “RS could be interested”.  I’m sure they’d answer the same way on anyone right now…… never close the door, etc, etc…..what’s he supposed to say….”nah he’s washed up no interest, next question”?  Of course not. 

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