The Red Sox hired Curt Young as their new pitching coach, according to WEEI's Alex Speier. The team already made a formal announcement. Young, formerly of the Athletics, replaces John Farrell. Farrell is now manager of the Blue Jays. A few other Red Sox notes from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe…
- Former Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi will probably decide later this week whether to join the Red Sox or Mets front office.
- The Red Sox told Bill Hall they'll reject his $9.25MM club option in favor of a $500K buyout according to Cafardo, though The Providence Journal's Brian MacPherson notes it's team policy to wait until the deadline to officially make option decisions.
- Cafardo says early talks with David Ortiz "haven't yielded much progress." Big Papi is known to be seeking multiple years, but the Sox have a $12.5MM club option just for 2011.
- Felipe Lopez has an "unspecified option" in his contract, writes MacPherson. He's a Type B free agent, but the Red Sox will need to decline the option, offer arbitration, and have him turn it down to sign a big league deal elsewhere if they're to get a draft pick.
- The Red Sox also have Adrian Beltre, Victor Martinez, and Jason Varitek as free agents. They have five arbitration eligible players: Jacoby Ellsbury, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Kevin Cash, Hideki Okajima, and Jonathan Papelbon. Salty has already agreed on a contract for 2011.
