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No news to report -- yet!

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein just held a conference call with the Boston writers in preparation for the upcoming winter meetings in Nashville, and no, he didn't announce a trade involving any of his players for Minnesota pitcher Johan Santana.

"We have nothing to announce," he said. "Nothing imminent. We're going to keep on working right up until the meetings, but if I had to guess I would say probably nothing to announce before the meetings."

Even though he would not get into specifics with any one certain deal, Epstein did say he's still looking to address the team's bench and bullpen during and after the winter meetings.

"Just because we're focused on those two elements of the club doesn't mean we're not going to look at other opportunities to get better," he said. "We'll see if anything presents itself and we'll be aggressive as we usually are . . . We're pleased with the position we are in. We think we have a really nice mix of veterans and young players at the big-league level, and another wave or two of talented young players coming through our farm system who should make an impact."

Epstein went on to explain he's very satisfied with the organizational depth, but would not "ignore" any opportunities that would make the team better in both the short and long term.

Blockbuster trades aside, the Red Sox still have some internal work to do with their own arbitration eligible free agents, including Mike Timlin, Bobby Kielty, Doug Mirabelli and Eric Hinske. Epstein said there will likely be some news to report on that front come Saturday, and that he was looking to bring back some of the role players from the 2007 team.

The team is also looking to extend the contract of manager Terry Francona.

Currently the talks between the sides still remain in the preliminary stages, but Epstein did say an extension is something that the Red Sox would like to get done at some point this winter.

Posted by Joe McDonald  at 1:22 PM | Permalink