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So Mike Lowell, Victor Martinez and Jason Varitek are now officially free agents. The Red Sox have a five-day window of negotiating exclusivity and that clock is ticking.
Players who have options — a group that includes Scott Atchison, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall and David Ortiz — have three days for those decisions to be made. That deadline comes Thursday at midnight.
The Red Sox hold options on Atchison (approximately $450,000), Hall ($9.25 million) and Ortiz ($12.5 million) while Beltre holds a $10 million player option.
Globe | Baseball gets down to business
Ah, November 2. A big day, as you may have heard. There are elections. Adam Carolla's new book comes out. Edgar Renteria celebrates his first day of relevance in ten years.
For Red Sox fans, it truly marks the beginning of the offseason. Now we have our decisions to make on Hall (option declined, according to Abraham and common sense), Atchison (accepted), and Ortiz (who knows). Beltre will only be back on a longer-term deal, if at all. Victor is clearly a question mark, as is Varitek.
There's a lot up in the air, but the hot stove should be fun.
To join in the fun, look through the list of free agents and conjure up your own Sox scenarios. Definitely some names of interest among relievers. J.J. Putz? Koji Uehara? Will Ohman? (Just so I can say "Will? Oh, man..." everytime he comes in and crack myself up.)
And congrats to the fans of the San Francisco Giants and that freak-show bunch of players that won the title, including former Sox Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez, Guillermo Mota, Freddy Sanchez, and MVP Edgar Renteria.
Herald | No drought about this | MVP Edgar Renteria bookends title-winning roles | Texas boss rips NY fans | Derek Jeter, Cliff Lee on list of 142 free agents | ESPNBoston | Ortiz deadline Thursday | CSNNE | The offseason begins
