Francona Speaks About Red Sox Offseason Topics

Red Sox manager Terry Francona was on WEEI's Dale & Holley earlier today (audio here, transcript courtesy of Alex Speier here), and spoke about a variety of Red Sox offseason topics. Let's round it all up…

• The team is currently interviewing candidates for openings in their coaching staff. Bench coach Brad Mills has since moved on to take over as Astros' skipper.
• Francona hopes the team re-signs Jason Bay, but he acknowledges that he's going to have other options. "You know we’re going to be a major player. We always are."
• He also thinks Bay won't drag out his decision until mid January.
• Francona says he has gone on free agent recruiting trips before, most notably to speak to John Smoltz and Mark Teixeira.
• Whenever GM Theo Epstein talks to him, Francona always tells him to get a pitcher.
• The team has met with John Lackey's agent, and Francona considers him "one of the best." He also notes that you're talking about a lot of years when committing to a player like that.
• Francona acknowledged that Alex Gonzalez stabilized the shortstop position, but "you look at that .310 on-base percentage, for a full year, if that’s what you’re going to go with, you’ve got to recoup that somewhere else."

Francona also spoke about how they mix stats and scouting, and how they "try to look at both and make good decisions."