General manager Theo Epstein clarified his description of 2010 as a bridge season during an interview with 98.5 the Sports Hub in Boston on Thursday morning.
"I know I got a lot of [criticism] for making one reference to a bridge period," said Epstein. "The bottom line is, what I meant was, I know we've been really good. We've made the playoffs six out of seven years, etc. I know how we're going to be really good in a couple of years, because I really believe in our elite players in the farm system -- it's just going to take them a couple of years to get up here. Our pre-prime players will still be in their prime then. But we were really focused on this period in between and trying to figure out a way that we could continue to compete at a really high level so that nobody noticed we were going through a bit of a transition period." After adding John Lackey at the cost of $82.8 million last month, it's a pretty expensive bridge. Though some were critical of the initial statement, we have every reason to believe that the Red Sox will be competing for the top spot in the American League East this season. |