Boston has 4-for-1 meetings plan set

BOSTON - First came closer by committee. Then the Boston Red Sox tried to anoint themselves co-division champions.

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Now the Red Sox are adopting a new kind of job share, sending four people to baseball's general managers' meetings next week while they search for a singular successor to Theo Epstein.

"We really are going to work as one group," said Jed Hoyer, the general manager's assistant without a general manager to assist. "We are really going to be no different from the 29 other teams out there."

Well, not exactly.

The Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only teams that don't have a general manager as next week's meetings in Indian Wells, Calif., approach.

Boston will send Hoyer, along with director of player development Ben Cherington, special assistant to the general manager Craig Shipley and director of baseball operations Peter Woodfork.

In a tag-team conference call with reporters Saturday, they insisted that Boston's baseball operations were business as usual.

In addition to talking trade, the GM meetings are usually a place to open discussions with free agents.

Boston's top priority is center fielder Johnny Damon.

"Make no mistake," team president Larry Lucchino said in a statement issued Friday, "they are also empowered to speak with other clubs and with agents and to consummate any deal they feel will be in the best interest of the Boston Red Sox."

GIANTS: San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean has a list of 20 potential free agents and a handful of teams that might be willing to work out off-season trades.

Sabean is also prepared to be patient this winter in what is expected to be a challenging market. His top priority heading into the general manager meetings is upgrading the starting rotation - and perhaps finding a left-handed bat and an outfielder as insurance if Barry Bonds can't play every day.

"We want to address our pitching and make sure our rotation is set first," Sabean said. "Our feeling is, no matter what our health is, no matter who else we add as a position player, if the pitching isn't as strong as a whole, we haven't accomplished what we needed to do."

Jason Schmidt, Noah Lowry and Matt Cain all have spots in the rotation for 2006, leaving the Giants to figure out how to use the other two openings. They have relied heavily on inexperienced minor leaguers to fill holes the past two years.