BOSTON -- A year ago this off-season, the Red Sox and New York Yankees battled for the right to sign Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras. This winter, the clubs are bidding for a more well known pitching commodity: lefthander Andy Pettitte.
Pettitte, who has spent his entire career with the Yankees, is a free agent and the Yanks' top off-season priority. Pettitte may choose to remain closer to his home near Houston and sign with the Astros, but the Red Sox have injected themselves into the mix as well.
Industry sources said the Sox were the first team to contact the agents representing Pettitte, and while the Sox fully realize that their bid may be a long shot, they're nonetheless making a concerted effort to land him.
Reports that Pettitte and his agents, Alan and Randy Hendricks, would be visiting Fenway this week are inaccurate. But the Sox have maintained contact with the Hendricks brothers and already have sketched a general outline of an offer they'd be willing to make.
Pettitte, who has 148 career victories, is one of only a handful of front-line starting pitchers on the free agent market and the only one in whom the Sox have a strong interest. Kevin Milwood has a history of shoulder troubles and Bartolo Colon represents a risk given his poor conditioning and an elbow that has become a concern.
It's difficult to envision a scenario in which Pettitte, 31, would select the Sox over both the Yankees -- with whom he's won four World Series -- and the Astros. In financial terms, the Yankees won't allow themselves to be outbid by the rival Red Sox.
But operating under the theory that you don't know unless you try, the Sox are making their interest well known.
Signing Pettitte is just one of items on the Red Sox' agenda as the winter meetings draw closer.
The others:
The club seems to be narrowing its search for a new manager, with Terry Francona established as the clear frontrunner. One baseball executive said yesterday something "totally unexpected" would have to happen for Francona not to get the position.
Francona met Tuesday night in Florida with principal owner John Henry -- the first candidate to do so -- then returned to Boston Wednesday for a second round of interviews with GM Theo Epstein, CEO Larry Lucchino and assistant general manager Josh Byrnes.
Anaheim bench coach Joe Maddon, who interviewed with Epstein at the general manager's meetings last week, is set to undergo another interview -- this time by phone -- with the front office this weekend.
Texas coach Demarlo Hale, a former minor league manager in the Boston system, will come to Boston Monday for an interview. Hale, who is African-American, will be the first minority candidate to be interviewed for the post.
Henry is known to think highly of Larry Dierker, the former Houston Astros manager, and he, too, may be interviewed next week.
As the free agent market slowly crystalizes, the Sox remain very much interested in closer Keith Foulke, whose asking price isn't as high as some had anticipated.
The Red Sox, who struggled for much of last season with their bullpen, like the fact that Foulke is durable and can be used for multiple innings.
The New York Mets are known to have some interest, too, especially after recently hiring pitching coach Rick Peterson, who worked with Foulke in Oakland last season.
It's unclear whether the Sox are have extended a formal offer to Foulke. If they signed him before the Dec. 7 deadline for offering salary arbitration to free agents, they would forfeit a first-round pick in next June's amateur draft.
The Sox did some roster juggling yesterday, purchasing the contract of three prospects from within the organization -- pitcher Jerome Gamble, third baseman Kevin Youkilis and catcher Andy Dominique -- and adding them to the 40-man roster.
The moves protect the trio of players from the Rule V draft, set for the winter meetings in New Orleans next month.
The Sox also outrighted utility man Cesar Crespo to the Pawtucket roster, though he will remain in the organization.
Additionally, the Sox added three minor leaguers. Claimed from the New York Mets were righthander Edwin Almonte and lefty Phil Seibel.
Also, the Sox signed six-year minor league free agent Tim Hamulack. Hamulack has been pitching winter ball in Puerto Rico and hit as high as 94 mph this week, though he isn't known as an overpowering pitcher. Rather, he succeeds with deception.
Almonte came to the Mets last summer from the Chicago White Sox for Roberto Alomar. Almonte made 12 appearances with the Mets, his first in the big leagues.
Either Seibel or Hamulack could go to camp as candidates for the team's second lefty reliever -- behind Alan Embree -- in the event that the Sox choose not to tender a contract to Scott Sauerbeck.
