Theo On Bay, Lugo, Trading Deadline

Theo Epstein said the Red Sox made an "aggressive" offer to Jason Bay about one week ago, but the two sides could not agree on a contract extension. There is now a mutual decision to table any talks until after the season.

Bay wants to remain with the Red Sox:

I'm not trying to set a precedent. Just looking for something that's fair. ... I'd still love to get something done here. I like it here. But that being said, we just basically at this point right now don't want it to be an ongoing distraction ... But the way things have gone so far, like I said, very encouraged with that.

Epstein:

I think we were really hopeful with the aggressive offer that we made that we could have reached a deal now. But we have complete respect for Jason as a player and a person and for what free agency means to players. He's worked his whole career and had a really consistent career to get to a point where he can set his family up for life. ... We'll see what the future brings. We still want to retain him.

Epstein also spoke about Julio Lugo:

[O]wnership has been consistent that we'll do what we need to do to keep the best possible team on the field. A sunk cost is a sunk cost. ... This was one of the free agent signings that doesn't work out. We were paying for past performance, not current performance. That's the true definition of a mistake, and as the decision-maker, that's on me.

Epstein, on the trading deadline:

I think we don't have one glaring weakness, [but] there are opportunities to get better. Exactly which opportunities we pursue or try to pursue relates probably more to health than anything else. ...

We want to create as much depth and redundancy as we possibly can, because if you don't address depth before July 31 or in some cases in August, then you're left without an opportunity to do so down the stretch and into what we hope will be another postseason.