Cherington On Madson, Saunders, Melancon, Darvish

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington appeared on MLB Network Radio's "Inside Pitch" with Jim Bowden this afternoon to speak about the club's offseason plans.  Alex Speier of WEEI.com has a partial transcript of the interview and here are some highlights…

• Cherington said the Red Sox are looking for rotation depth.  The team is satisfied with Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz at the top of the rotation so the Sox "don’t feel like we’re backed into a place where we need to break the door in for a top-of-the-rotation starter," Cherington said.  "If we can do that and it makes sense for us, then we’ll certainly do that. We’re always looking for ways to do that. But…we’re in good position there and can kind of let the market come to us a little bit."
• To this end, Cherington said "the timing wasn’t right" for the team to bid on Yu Darvish.
• Cherington said he had been in contact with Ryan Madson and Joe Saunders' representatives "as well as several other free agent options." 
• The newly-acquired Mark Melancon projects as Boston's closer, at least for now.  “As I told Mark on the phone when I talked to him, we believe he can close….If the season opened tomorrow, that’s what he’d be doing,” Cherington said.  This, of course, could easily change should the Red Sox sign Madson or trade for Andrew Bailey.
• The Red Sox have interviewed Brad Arnsberg and Neil Allen about the vacant pitching coach job and also talked to "several" other candidates.