Hot Stove Update

CC Sabathia (the Brewer) is dead! Long live CC Sabathia (the Yankee)! Er, make that, “Long may the Yankees continue to spend outrageous amounts of money in the offseason and yet still only manage third place in the division.” The big man is off the negotiating table, which could signal many more dominoes falling into place soon… or it could just signal more waiting.

Sox reporters are wasting no time pointing out CC’s wretched playoff history. Surviving Grady also wastes no time with another installment of the Headwarmer Dialogues.

The Sox have a very clear hot stove philosophy: TRICKERY. “The Red Sox,” one agent said [Monday], “do a very good job of obscuring their message.” As the Herald points out: “If the Red Sox can delude every other team into thinking that they’re involved with virtually the entire free agent class, it’s impossible to predict what they are really plotting.”

It also appears the second philosophy is: slow and steady wins the race. Everyone agrees the big prize (and main focus) for Theo is Mark Teixeira – but Theo isn’t holding out hope anything will be signed, sealed and delivered this week. “I’m not really optimistic about the chances of us getting anything done here (before the meetings finish on Thursday),” general manager Theo Epstein said. “I wouldn’t expect anything (big) to be done here, honestly.”As the Herald notes:

The last thing the Red Sox want to do is make a formal offer to Teixeira, only to have it sit there for a month. If the Sox make the first move and present Teixeira with an offer, they fear agent Scott Boras will shop it to the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Yankees, setting off a costly bidding war.

A more logical scenario would have the Red Sox waiting for other offers to establish the Teixeira market, then swooping in at the 11th hour with their last, best offer and hope that lands them the prize. Ironically, it was precisely this strategy that the Yankees used to sign another Boras client, former Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, three years ago.

Extension discussions with Kevin Youkilis are in progress, but moving slowly. As of Tuesday, no contract extension has been offered to Jason Bay.

Any trade involving David Ortiz (don’t hyperventilate on me) would need to be approved by Papi himself: per the CBA and Article XIX of his individual contract, Papi earned “10-and-5″ man status this season. The relevant wording says:

The contract of a Player with ten or more years of Major League service, the last five of which have been with one Club, shall not be assignable to another Major League Club without the Player’s written consent.

No catching solution magically appeared over night – but it doesn’t appear that any trade for the Dbacks Miguel Montero is imminent. The Dbacks offered Montero in exchange for Michael Bowden; that offer was rejected. Talks continue with Arizona, however.

Theo also indicated that even if Jason Varitek does end up back in Boston, that will not happen anytime soon. “We haven’t really talked much to Scott about Jason this winter,” said Epstein. “I’m sure we will. We’ll see where it goes.”

Other catching names in the Boston mix? “Preliminary discussions” with the Pirates about Ronny Paulino, plus Cleveland’s Kelly Shoppach and Baltimore’s Ramon Hernandez.

Everyone can breathe normally again: neither Andy Pettitte nor Jay Payton will be coming to Boston. Red Sox officials confirmed there was no chance of a Pettitte signing (and Joe Torre, who managed Pettitte for many years in New York, said, “I would find it hard to believe that Andy would go there.”). Payton’s agent also confirmed that the Red Sox have zero interest in bringing Jay back to the Fens.

Sox have expressed interest in Brandon Ryan, the relief pitcher Theo traded to the Dbacks as part of the Curt Schilling package.