This is an excerpt from an interview on WEEI today.
On whether he would have made the Adam LaRoche deal had he known he'd have been able to acquire Victor Martinez:
Epstein: "Well, the LaRoche deal led to Casey Kotchman. Unlike LaRoche, who's a free agent at the end of the year, [Kotchman] is controlled for two more years. And he's also younger, he's entering his prime. At the time, we made the LaRoche deal knowing he could turn into Kotchman, because there was some interest from the Braves. That was part of it. But yeah, what you're hitting on was accurate. LaRoche, to a certain extent, was an insurance place in case we weren't able to address the bat. We didn't know if we would get Victor Martinez until an hour or two before the deadline, and we didn't want to end up empty-handed."
Interesting.