Don’t expect shakeup
Roster makeup pleases Epstein
By Adam Kilgore
Globe Staff / July 18, 2009
TORONTO - With no obvious need on his roster and no prominent problems in the clubhouse (remember last year?), general manager Theo Epstein intimated yesterday the Red Sox will have a mostly quiet trade deadline. And, without naming this season’s most high-profile potential trade chip or addressing him directly, Epstein built an argument against acquiring Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay.
The two weeks between the All-Star break and July 31 is typically the most active dealing period of the year. The Red Sox under Epstein have proven to be creative and thorough, but any moves will not likely be headline stealers. Rather, Epstein said, the Sox will try to add depth, as they did last season in acquiring Mark Kotsay in August.
“I don’t think we have one glaring weakness, which I think speaks to the great job the players on this club have been doing in the first half,’’ he said. “At the same, I think there are opportunities to get better. Exactly which opportunities we pursue or try to pursue relates probably more to health than anything else.
“We want to create as much depth and redundancy as we possibly can. If you don’t address depth before July 31 or in some cases in August, then you’re left without an opportunity to do so down the stretch and to help the team, we hope, in another postseason.’’
The biggest move the Sox could make, of course, is a trade for Halladay, whom the Blue Jays may be hesitant to move within the American League East. The Blue Jays want a bevy of prospects, and the Red Sox possess a talented reservoir of potential major leaguers, but Epstein wants to build his organization with them, not trade them away.
Epstein cannot speak publicly about another team’s player, but he responded to a question about the temptation of trying to trade for a premier starting pitcher.
“It’s always tempting, but it always comes at great cost,’’ Epstein said. “When you do it through the free agent market, it comes with tremendous risk in terms of the years and dollars you have to spend. If you do it through trade, it comes at tremendous cost - basically your best and most promising prospects, the core of your organization in a lot of ways.
“The only way to do it that seems to make the most sense is develop them from within. We’re lucky that we have a talented starting pitching corps. We’ll see what happens on the trade front. Trades are always tempting, but those temptations always come at a cost.’’