Theo Epstein Quotes (55 Quotes)

A situation may arise where he's a better option than what we have. There aren't too many guys you can bring in under these circumstances and be sure they won't be afraid.

had a lot of honest talks in that last week, reflecting on ourselves and the organization and the job, and whether it was right for me and for the team.

I understand there's been some interest in talking to me over the last couple of days, as evidenced by the cameras outside my house and the fact that I left in a gorilla suit the other day, ... That thing's getting itchy, so I thought I would just come here and try to answer your questions today.

We have him as one of the top guys in all of baseball. He's very sure-handed, consistent, with good range and he's fun to watch play shortstop.

I think the future is bright. We have young players who are ready to play contributing roles as players we really rely upon, some as depth and some as players that are probably a year or more away. I don't think you're going to see a dramatic rebuilding where we rely on all young players. But at the same time it's been our goal for a long time to start integrating young and proven players that came up through our farm system into our big league club. I think you'll see more of that next year.

From a personal standpoint, I really admire Bronson. I have gotten to know him really well, and that made it difficult. From an organizational standpoint, we owe a lot to Bronson ..I think its safe to say we would not have won the (2004) World Series without him. Hes handled himself with a huge amount of class on and off the field throughout his time as a Red Sox.

He loves his Red Sox teammates and he really took a liking to the organization. Not every aspect of a situation is going to be to a player's liking, so that would not surprise me. I'm not going to speak for Boomer. We'll certainly be in touch with him. He's a guy we have penciled into our rotation.

If someone else wins it, they must have had a very special season. I hope he wins it.

The (Jays) did a great job of executing a game plan. You can't always think four or five years ahead. Sometimes you have to take advantage of an opportunity to win now. They made themselves a lot better and are very squarely on our radar screen.

Ninety-five wins is nothing to laugh at. All the resources of this organization are going to be dedicated to trying to win 11 more games.

We felt that there's probably no one on the planet better suited than Doug to do this. We had a chance to get him at a reasonable cost. So that made sense to us.

It's an opportunity for them to get a little bit of big-league experience, see how the guys go about batting practice, ... The way they get their work in. It all fits together. Big league. Instructional league. We're all part of the same organization. These guys are not that far away. Last night is a good example.

I think he feels that obligation to come into camp in great shape next year.

No, I am not burned out, ... I have tremendous passion for the game. I have tremendous dedication to the game. I believe that I will find myself in a position of leadership with an organization again in the future, but I have no immediate plans. My goal for the rest of this week is to help the organization with the transition and to help the baseball operations staff that I care so much about get ready for the general managers meetings.

He says that when he covered first base, he kind of felt it give a little bit.

This is one of those contract negotiations where it all came together because we have a player who means so much to the organization and has done so much for the organization and he wanted to stay in Boston. David said it early on, and he meant it. It came together very quickly.

I think Manny is obviously a huge part of this club. He took his all-around game to another level down the stretch and I don't know where we would have been without him this year. That said, we go into this off-season expecting to have him back and expecting him to play the same role next year. Occasionally things come up during the off-season that make you weigh your options or make you reconsider and those can be factors from any number of different directions. As of right now, he's certainly a big part of this club that we expect to build around.

It's not fair to attribute my decision to any one factor or any one person, ... There were many factors that went into the decision.

Ironically, Theo's departure has brought us closer together in many respects, and, thanks to these conversations, we now enjoy the bonds of a shared vision for the organization's future that did not exist on Oct. 31.

Because we're still in a pennant race, we won't be able to reward all deserving players. Decisions will be based on the needs of the big league club.

I think in the long run it will turn out to be a very good development year for him. He's far ahead of most members of the 2004 draft class.

That remains to be seen. We have as many as seven starting pitchers, but those things have a way of working themselves out during the course of the camp.

You have to believe in every aspect of the job and the organization and your ability to stay and do the job the right way, with your whole heart and your whole soul. And in the end, it just wasn't the right fit.

It's not a pattern you want to fall into. Our backs are truly against the wall. It's the personality of this team to not do things easily.

I think there are a lot of factors, ... One is the first round, it's only five games, you do have that off-day, and then you look at sort of how the rest of your staff is constituted. We think we're covered in a variety of situations. Obviously, if we play four 15-inning games, we're going to be scrapping. I think, realistically, we're in pretty good shape with what we have with our 10 guys. I think we're more likely to go with 11 in subsequent rounds.

said a beaming Faxon, his smile Kennedy-like in its width and charismatic luster, ''which I don't really care about.

It's not time enough for a really adequate sample size, but we have to be patient. Five starts will be more telling than two.

That's why they pay you guys the big bucks, ... To find the polysyllabic word for this.

We put our best foot forward and made an offer that makes sense to the club. We think it's a fair and generous offer.

The schedule says we play at the end and the standings say we're pretty close and those games will matter, ... Both teams have survived the toughest division in baseball and whoever wins the series will probably get into the playoffs. They might be the only one.

My relationship with Larry is one that spanned about 14 years we've had a very successful working relationship,

I took very seriously the responsibilities of turning the Red Sox into a championship organization and playing a role in that process, ... We did accomplish that. There's a lot more work to be done here. It's sad for me to leave more work to be done. I feel like we're in a very good position for the future with the farm system that these guys have built. I'll watch with admiration, respect and good wishes from afar as they go forward.

As for this year, We won 95 games and put ourselves in position to make a postseason run, ... But it didn't materialize for us.

We trust this guy's makeup. He's a guy we're very comfortable with on the mound.

We think he's above average offensively and defensively at a premium position.

I don't think you ever want to see your team struggle. I think the fact that we had to overcome adversity during the regular season probably helped us.

We think investing in Coco was a wise move.

It was a time of personal conflict. We had discord.

If he has anything to share about the Yankees, we'll listen. They have half our team over there. All's fair.

We were a strong club. We took on so many holes because of injuries. With those gaps we got to a certain performance level . . .

Josh Bard is a catcher with excellent defensive tools and someone ... whose best days are ahead of him. He's not coming off his best offensive season, but we still think there is some ceiling on him. He has outstanding makeup and calls a good game. He's a solid receiver with a plus arm, and he's going to be coming to camp with a chance to open some eyes.

I think the first year in Boston can leave you feeling like you need to take some time off and you need to get away a little bit. He was a little bit taken back by how passionate the fan base was here. You expect a guy that's played in New York to make a seamless transition to Boston. But it was tough on him. He couldn't go out. I think he used the word 'hermit.' We know David doesn't like being a hermit. I think he'll need to go to his ranch and get away and think about that, how to deal with the hermit lifestyle.

Coco Crisp is not Johnny Damon -- he is his own player. He brings his own strengths. Johnny was an outstanding, elite leadoff guy and center fielder for us for four years. It's unfair to ask Coco Crisp to fill those shoes. He's going to go and do it his own way.

For about 14 years, we've had a very successful working relationship, ... I think Larry and I like each other. As with any long-term relationship, there are complexities. There are ups and downs. There are times when you have philosophical differences. But I owe him quite a bit.

This year, for a lot reasons and for a lot of teams, has been an exercise in survival. Getting past the attrition of a long year for a lot of different reasons, ... We both survived in probably the toughest division in baseball to get to a point where whomever wins that series will probably get in. It doesn't matter how we got here. It's what we do the rest of the way.

You just try to make the most of every single opportunity in the postseason. We weren't able to do it this year.

The way our bullpen has been, this will be a good opportunity for us. If he gets on a roll, and throws strikes, he has a chance to really help us. We don't have a lot of strikeout-type stuff up and down our 'pen. This is a chance to add a guy with a great arm.

The first round of internal planning, looking at our needs and looking at the market dynamics this winter, that will continue. We're going to give everybody the day off today and get right back after it Monday morning.

Throughout November, (owner) John Henry, (owner) Tom Werner, Larry and I held discussions to see what lessons could be learned in the aftermath of my departure. Gradually, with the benefit of time and greater perspective, we tackled not only our personal conflicts but also the differences regarding our thoughts for the organization.

The issues had nothing to do with the chain of command, per se. I'm happy with the chain of command.