The Red Sox need to create a roster spot for outfielder Cody Ross. (AP)

As first pointed out by Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal (via twitter), the Red Sox face a bit of a roster crunch at the moment. The team’s 40-man roster is currently fully occupied, meaning that in order to finalize the recent one-year, $3 million deal with outfielder Cody Ross, the Sox will have to create space for the 31-year-old.

According to a team source, the Sox are in the process of “exploring everything” with regards to freeing that spot, though at the moment, there’s no sense that the team will contemplate anything “significant” with regards to its roster. While there are still some available starting pitchers on the market, the most straightforward way in which the Sox might clear space on the 40-man would be either a deal involving one of the team’s many out-of-options pitchers (Matt Albers, Scott Atchison, Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront, Andrew Miller or Franklin Morales), since the Sox will be in a position where — barring a significant string of injuries — they will not be able to carry all of them on the major league roster. Indeed, it was with an eye towards that fact that the Sox spent time early in the offseason gauging trade interest in that group of pitchers, knowing that at some point, one or more would have to be removed from the roster.

The team could also consider a trade of one of its six outfielders who is currently on the 40-man roster. If they did so, Darnell McDonald (who is out-of-options) and Che-Hsuan Lin (who was added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, but who (after hitting .235 with a .325 OBP, .293 slugging mark and .618 OPS in 85 Triple-A games as a 22-year-old last year) represents more of a depth option than a player whose skills (excellent defense, speed, a good command of the strike zone but limited offensive skills and no discernible power to this point in his career) create a clear big league role with the Sox.

And, if the team cannot deal one of those players for a minor league prospect (someone not on the 40-man roster) to clear a spot, it could always designate a player for assignment and hope to sneak him through waivers to the minors.

The 40-man roster bottleneck will ease somewhat late in spring training, when the Sox can put John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 60-day disabled list. But, until then, the Sox will need to create an opening for Ross in order to make his deal official.

MILWAUKEE — With major league teams required to set their 40-man rosters to protect players from the Rule 5 draft on Friday, the Red Sox explored trade interest in some of their players who are out of options during the GM meetings in order to get a feel for how many spots they might have available to add players, according to a major league source.

Left-handed pitchers Franklin Morales, Andrew Miller and Felix Doubront and right-handers Michael Bowden and Scott Atchison all represent pitchers who are out of minor-league options but whose role on the big league roster is somewhat uncertain. As such, the Sox spent part of the GM meetings exploring what kind of interest existed in those pitchers, given that it will be virtually impossible for them to form a big league bullpen next year that would include all of them on the Opening Day roster.

If the team expects, based on interest shown at the GM meetings this week, to move one or more of those arms during the offseason, then it would impact the number of players whom the team might consider adding to the 40-man roster on Friday in order to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.

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Red Sox manager Terry Francona gave Commissioner Bud Selig something to consider Saturday.

Maybe MLB was listening in when Terry Francona made some frank and honest suggestions about how baseball should consider re-structuring its playoff format starting in 2012.

“I hope they add about six,” Francona said in partially tongue-in-cheek fashion of adding MLB teams to the playoff pool.

Then he struck a more serious tone.

“I like the idea of having another wild card. I think it’s intriguing because it’s drawing more fans in and having more teams maybe think they have a legit chance, which is good.”

Then the blinds came down in the Fenway Park media room. A mesage from MLB perhaps?

“I thought that was me, I thought I was going down,” cracked Francona. “Wow, I thought I was going to say goodbye to you guys.”

But then Francona collected himself and continued to entertain the topic.

“I think the way the divisions are set up though is not fair,” Francona said. “I think you have to get more balance in what you’re doing. The question about sense of accomplishment, in ’04 we won 98 games. The only team that won more than us was the Yankees. We didn’t back in anywhere, and they were in our division. If they weren’t in our division, we would’ve probably won 102. If you’re going to start giving that much importance to a division winner and less to the wild card, I think there needs to be more balance. Look at our division right now, you’ve got four teams over .500.”

Would he be cool with 15 teams in each league and a possible interleague match-up in the final weekend of the season, perhaps in an NL park where an AL team would be without a DH?

“I’d be cooler if there was a designated hitter,” Francona said. “There’s decisions that need to be made by people that are smarter than me, hopefully. It’s never going to be perfect but I think there’s probably ways they can figure out to make it really good and a little more fair.” Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Bowden has dominated right-handers in Triple-A this year. (AP)

When Daisuke Matsuzaka landed on the disabled list, it was a near-certainty that Michael Bowden would get the call from Pawtucket to join the Red Sox bullpen. Bowden, after all, is the only healthy, big league-ready pitcher on the 40-man roster who is not currently in the majors. Had the Sox summoned any other pitcher, they would have had to risk losing a player whom they removed from the 40-man.

But it was more than just numbers that played in Bowden’s favor. The pitcher has been outstanding thus far this year in Pawtucket.

Bowden, a sandwich-round selection by the Sox in the 2005 draft, had been developed a starter throughout his career. But after pitching in the bullpen in Venezuela over the winter, he reported to spring training and, for the first time, prepared for a full year of life as a reliever. Down the stretch last year, the Sox had Bowden work out of the bullpen, and they found it to be a hand-in-glove fit.

“I think he’s a lot more comfortable being a reliever,” Pawtucket pitching coach Rich Sauveur said in spring training. “All he wants to do is throw. Every frigging day as a starter, next day, he’s out throwing; third day, he’s out throwing; fourth day, he’s out throwing. He throws the ball everyday.

“[When he was first switched to relief], we had a set program for him, then after a week and a half, we told him, ‘We’re not going to tell you when you’re going to pitch.’ He was coming to the ballpark thinking he was going to be in every game. He loved that.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hideki Okajima

Reliever Hideki Okajima knew when he signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox this offseason that he was not guaranteed a roster spot. That didn’t make getting sent to Pawtucket to start the season any easier, though. When asked Thursday night how he felt upon being told of the decision, Okajima responded through a translator with a simple “disappointed.”

That said, Okajima recognizes that a call-up to Boston could be right around the corner if he pitches well in Pawtucket, which he has so far. He tossed a perfect inning in the season opener Thursday and followed that up with a one-hit scoreless inning Saturday.

“It’s all about results over here,” Okajima said. “So I’ll do whatever I’m needed to and I’ll do everything that I’m told to do.”

Okajima didn’t produce those results last season, when the former All-Star posted a 4.50 ERA and 1.72 WHIP in 56 appearances. Both of those were easily career worsts. In his first three seasons, he never had an ERA higher than 3.39 or a WHIP higher than 1.26. A poor spring training (5.14 ERA, 1.57 WHIP) didn’t help his cause.

“I just felt that I had lost the battle at that point when I was told,” said the 35-year-old Okajima. “I had been preparing, of course, to start the season up in the majors. So I had been preparing that way, getting my body ready. But since I’ve been told, I’ve had to regroup myself, get myself ready again and start back from [square] one.”

One of the things Okajima said he had been working on was ways to get right-handed batters out. Righties hit an eye-popping .340 off him last season. Okajima said part of the reason for his struggles could be that major league hitters are getting used to his stuff, meaning he needs to make some adjustments.

“I’m sure the opposition has been studying me and the more they see me, the more they get used to me,” Okajima said. “So my plan in preparing for this season, I was studying and developing pitches to attack right-handed batters. I was really looking forward to using that up in the big leagues, but since this happened, I’ll just have to try those out here and hopefully everything goes well and I can make it back up.” Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Bowden is reaching back for a little extra this spring. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Michael Bowden is not worried about his identity crisis.

After all, the writing was on the wall all winter long. With each acquisition of a high-profile reliever, the transformed righty reliever knew he was fighting an uphill battle for a big league roster spot out of camp.

With Bobby Jenks, Dan Wheeler, Alfredo Aceves and Dennys Reyes added to the group of Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Tim Wakefield, Bowden certainly didn’t need general manager Theo Epstein, skipper Terry Francona or anyone else from the organization spelling out the cold hard facts.

“You’d be pretty dumb if you didn’t [figure it out],” Bowden said Wednesday morning as he prepared for another day of work at City of Palms Park. “Just by their acquisitions and what they did, I know exactly how it’s going to pan out. I’ve been around long enough so I don’t think they felt like they needed to tell me something I already knew.”

Still only 24, Bowden readily admits his sights aren’t necessarily set on making the big league roster on April 1 but rather showing the Red Sox — or any other MLB team for that matter — his value. That was evident by one scout commenting after his impressive outing in Kissimmee last week: “Don’t forget about Michael Bowden.”

But for now, the reality is there’s little, if any, room for Bowden on the 2011 Red Sox.

“As of now, it’s a very slim chance, and I know that, unless there’s injuries, but I don’t wish that upon anybody,” he said. “As of now, I’m going to go down to Triple-A and pitch as well as I can and hopefully create an opportunity for myself.”

The Red Sox thought so much of Bowden that they used a first-round pick on him in 2005. He was a starter then and he moved his way up the system, reaching Triple-A Pawtucket in 2008, when he also made his big league debut. He made 24 starts for the PawSox in 2009 and then everything changed, beginning with his role. Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Today marks the day when official activity commences in spring training. It’s not exactly going to inspire visions of the home stretch of the playoff race, but with almost all pitchers and catchers accounted for (with the possible exceptions of Dennys Reyes and Alfredo Aceves, who face a couple days of visa-related issues), the Sox will conduct a conditioning drill today in one of the annual rites of spring.

With the real beginning of spring training, here’s a look back at what’s taken place so far in Fort Myers:

Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's unusual offseason and status beyond 2010 have been a popular topic in Fort Myers. (AP)

–GM Theo Epstein gave his view on the state of the Red Sox roster, and manager Terry Francona did the same.

–The bullpen was a major shortcoming for the Sox in 2010. Part of the Sox’ offseason shopping spree was dedicated to upgrading it, though in the early stages of spring training (an otherwise sleepy time when paint dries and players play catch on flat ground), that has been subject to questions about dynamics and the future.

Jonathan Papelbon said that he is aware that this could be his last season in Boston, but that he doesn’t anticipate that affecting his 2011 season, even as he wants to position himself to be the top closer on the market.

Bobby Jenks, signed as a free agent this offseason, could be a closer-in-waiting either in 2012 (if Papelbon leaves as a free agent) or even this year (if the longtime Sox closer falters). But he has no ambitions of fomenting a closer controversy, and pronounced upon arriving that he’s not looking to step on anyone’s toes. The opportunity to sign with the Red Sox as a setup man, he said, outweighed the chance provided by other clubs to close.

The other potential closer-in-waiting, Daniel Bard, said that he is excited about the fact that the Sox bullpen can redistribute the workload a bit, something that could leave all of the relievers feeling fresh down the stretch. That is the forecast for this year. Down the road, the right-hander suggested that he would be open to trying his hand at starting once again.

There are 21 pitchers in Red Sox camp competing for the last two spots in the big league bullpen. Here’s a look at who has options, who’s on minor league deals and whom the Sox would risk losing if they don’t make the Opening Day roster. Here’s a closer look at 15 of the 21 candidates.

–While such players on the fringes of the roster may be unfamiliar and seem to have little relevance in the spring, the Sox staff actually spends more time focusing on such players than on established veterans, and with good reason. Here’s a look at why, as well as some of the measures that the team takes in order to ensure that players with unfamiliar faces feel comfortable in their clubhouse.

–Dustin Pedroia checked into Fort Myers, where he pronounced himself healthy and ready to play without restrictions following his recovery from a procedure to insert a screw in his broken left foot. He also endured much grief about his new hair style, which was compared by manager Terry Francona to that of Giovanni Ribisi. The comparisons don’t stop there — Pedroia shares an opinion with consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader about a particularly egregious act of consumer fraud.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Pedroia has returned from a disastrous broken bone. As a high school freshman quarterback, he had his led snapped on an option play (though rumors that Bears linebacker Lance Briggs delivered the hit appear unfounded). His recovery from that injury, said his high school coach Rob Rinaldi, bodes well for his return from this injury. Read the rest of this entry »