It's a new offseason, and secrecy is the name of the game. Epstein is faced with the task of retooling the Red Sox and gearing them up to take down a potential Yankee dynasty — and while he may have a plan for how to go about doing that, he certainly isn't sharing it with anyone else.
That wasn't always the case.
Last season, the Red Sox were completely transparent. They were going all out for Mark Teixeira, desperately trying to outspend not only the Yankees but also the Angels, the Orioles and the Nationals. It was common knowledge that Teixeira wanted eight years and well over $20 million a year, and the Red Sox weren't secretive about strongly considering it. Epstein, John Henry, Larry Lucchino, everyone — the front office wasn't hiding its involvement in the Teixeira sweepstakes.
The year before that, the Red Sox made it clear that re-signing World Series MVP Mike Lowell was their top priority. And when they did, no one was surprised.
The year before that, the Red Sox knew they had to break the bank after a third-place AL East finish in 2006. The speculation was that Daisuke Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo were the Red Sox' prime free-agent targets — and sure enough, the team pursued and eventually signed all three.
There was no secrecy before. The Red Sox' motives were transparent: The ballclub had obvious needs, and Epstein went about filling the team's holes earnestly and without hesitation. The fans, the media, the rest of baseball — everyone knew what the team was up to, and it didn't matter.
This winter, it won't be the same. We can already tell as much — it's a matter of perception versus reality.
Going into this offseason, the public perception was that the Red Sox' top priority was re-signing Jason Bay. That's common sense, right? Bay gave the Red Sox 36 home runs and 119 runs batted in last season, and he was the best free agent available on a buyer's market. We all expected the Red Sox to go hard after Bay, spending whatever amount was necessary to keep their All-Star left fielder.
And we were all wrong. But what did you expect? We had nothing to go on, no clues from Epstein or anyone else. It was all media speculation.
"[The media] has done a great job of speculating, putting the pieces together this winter, so I'll let you continue to speculate," the Red Sox GM said at a press conference last week. "I don't want to say that the door is officially closed on one player out there that's a free agent. But Jason, obviously, in a year and a half here, did an outstanding job for us."
Have we?
Have we done a good job speculating? The track record sure isn't there anymore. That quote, mind you, came from a press conference to introduce Red Sox newcomer Mike Cameron, a free-agent signing that no one but the most wildly speculative media members saw coming. Last week's signing of John Lackey? No one really called that either. The assumption in Boston was that the Red Sox' game plan was to keep Bay and maintain the status quo that won 95 games last season. Epstein steered the ship in a completely different direction, and no one in Boston had any idea.
This whole philosophical shift that Epstein has brought about in Boston — away from the heavy hitters like Bay, investing instead in pitching, defense and all that good stuff — has come out of nowhere.
As a fan, it's hard to appreciate a style like the one Epstein's adopted. Every die-hard follower wants to be plugged into his team's goings-on, and no one likes being left in the dark. It's fun to speculate about deals before they happen, and as a Red Sox fan, that's not easy to do anymore.
But for the Red Sox, it's probably for the best. No one knows what to expect from these Red Sox anymore — and that will make it much tougher for the Yankees or anyone else to plan ahead.
What do the 2010 Red Sox have in store for us? We really don't know yet. This might be it — it might be all about defense for a change — or we might see still more overhauling down the road.
Who could be next? Could it be Adrian Gonzalez? Miguel Cabrera? Adrian Beltre?
We don't know and we won't until it happens. According to the new Theo Epstein, that's for the best.
