Offseason Preview: Looking For A Direction

Now that the World Series has come to a conclusion, the real off-season can officially begin. GM??s will begin sitting down after either a three-week vacation or a devastating playoff defeat and begin evaluating their roster, scouting potential free agents and taking a look at their payroll status. Do teams need to take a step back and attempt to cut payroll and rebuild this winter? Or does a team need to sign that marquee free agent or make that blockbuster trade, sacrificing a golden prospect for the shot at being a World Series contender next season? The next two off seasons have served confusing to many Red Sox fans, as Theo Epstein and his crew have been willing to trade coveted minor league players to win now, but at the same time, the Red Sox are saying they??re building for the future.
At about this time last season, the Red Sox were looking at some key free agents and the process for possibly taking a step back in 2006. By January, we seemed to realize that finishing in second place and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2002 was likely to occur. We were not angry, though, because the prospect of winning in 2007 was brighter than a candle. After we got Crisp, Papelbon emerged as a lethal closer and Schilling returned to ace form in April and May, we wanted to win the World Series. When the Ortiz walkoffs began not happening twice a week, the season slipped away. But Sox fans have been waiting for this time since last winter. 2007 is the year when the Sox contain valuable prospects on the fringe of becoming major league weapons and a veteran base well-equipped enough to make a playoff run. Unfortunately, we may be taking another step back for 2007.
The gaping holes are evident. The Red Sox desperately need an ace at the top of their rotation, because we??ve come to fully realize Josh Beckett is not The Man. Schilling, mostly because of his hit-inning ratio, is looking to be a great candidate to decline for 2007. Same with Wakefield. Papelbon and Lester will be key factors in the rotation??s success, but it??s looking like 2008 as the year they fully blossom as starting pitchers, especially for the transition Papelbon needs to make.
We desperately need a closer. Mike Timlin can be nothing more than a 6th of 7th inning pitcher, and if anyone doubts that, go back and watch some footage of Timlin pitching in the second half last season. Keith Foulke might be a valuable setup man due mostly to his very promising September, but those were pressure-free situations and could be fooling. We clearly do not have someone at the front end of the bullpen, or a strong setup man for that matter, to close out baseball games.
So we find ourselves at an awkward stance in Red Sox history. At one end of the spectrum you have an abundance of young pitching talent in Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Clay Buccholz and Daniel Bard, all ready to start making big contributions in 2008, not 2007. By the time 2008 rolls around, Foulke and Timlin will likely be out the door and Ortiz/Ramirez will be on the decline. Some say we??re wasting the precious, peak years of the duo, and I can see the reasoning. We??re at a tough position in the middle of the road, looking at one end to a bright sunrise, and the other end to a dark cave. It??s Theo??s job in this vital off- season to give us Sox fans a perspective of where the team stands in the process of becoming a playoff team once again, to mend those roads into one path to a championship.
One thing is surely working against the Sox this winter. The free-agent class for starting pitchers and closers is bleak and not promising. If we sign one of the top free agent pitchers, such as Zito, Matsuzaka, Schmidt, Pettitte, Wood or even Clemens, can you honestly say you feel 100% safe that this will be the answer to an average rotation, at best? Unless Theo swaps a trade for a closer, which is practically impossible, the bullpen will be left a complete mess and the city of Boston will be blaming the season on Papelbon not being the closer.
We all griped, yelled, screamed and sobbed when Theo left the Red Sox for that brief hiatus last Halloween. We had lost a hero, a savior, a modern-day JFK in Boston for Red Sox fans. He had built the championship team, and losing him was the end of the world. Now, this winter, he will have to prove his worth. If Theo and his companions can dig out of this mess, this uncertainty, and the Sox enter 2007 with a brighter chance of winning than April 2006, he should get all the credit in the world. Just don??t count on it.