Mets Could Be The Lone Team Standing For Drew

In yesterday's Boston Herald, Scott Lauber recounts a discussion with Red Sox General Manager, Ben Cherington, about the state of the team right now and the possible addition of free agent Stephen Drew.  His words were very telling on just how little commitment the Sox have towards the Drew sweepstakes:

"We feel good about where we are right now. I think the time that's being spent on talking about publicly is not necessarily consistent with the time we're spending on it. We feel like we're in good shape to start the season tomorrow if we had to. There's a circumstance for the Red Sox in that we have players that we believe in and bigger-picture things that we want to do, and some of that has nothing to do with Stephen Drew. Stephen did a great job for us last year. We respect him, and because of that, we've kept a dialogue going. But there's nothing to be gleaned from that other than we've kept a dialogue going. We're comfortable where we are. I don't ever want to rule anything out because it doesn't make any sense to do that, but we like the roster we have now."

As is always the case with any general manager, its important to try to interpret exactly what he means. This isn't the first time Cherington has made similar comments. The Red Sox have some significant young talent on the left side of the infield in Xander Bogaerts and Will Middlebrooks. There isn't necessarily an everyday role available for Drew in Boston. As a result there is no real push to retain him.

That's what I take away from his words.  Drew would be welcomed back at the right price, but it appears Cherington doesn't think that price is realistic.  Of course he could be posturing via the media, as the Mets have done many times in the past.  Any negotiation with Drew's agent, Scott Boras, is a complicated one, so anything is possible.

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If taken at his word, it would appear that Boston's interest in Drew is fading.  If that's the case, the Mets remain the lone team with any major connection to Drew.  Does that crash his market to the point where he is willing to accept the one year contract the Mets reportedly covet?  I'm not sure.  As I've said in the past, I don't believe this situation gets settled until after the team's report for spring training, for better or worse.