LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — If you find yourself frustrated at the utter lack of progress by the Boston Red Sox in their search for a bigger, better bat, you’re not alone.

The Red Sox are right there with you. So is Scott Boras.

The Red Sox sound pretty sure who their Plan A is – J.D. Martinez – and who Plan B is – Eric Hosmer or Carlos Santana.

But do they know when it’s time to give up on Martinez and turn to Hosmer or Santana?

They don’t.

Do they even know that if they give up on Martinez and he signs elsewhere, that Hosmer or Santana will still be available?

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No, they do not.

For that matter, does Boras, who represents Martinez and Hosmer and has a reputation for outwaiting teams, want to prolong this any longer?

Not if he doesn’t have to.

There are no guarantees the wait will be worth it or worthless for the Red Sox. How long is too long is tough to figure out.

“I don’t know the answer, frankly, because it’s something that we talk about all the time and I think it’s based upon feel and pulse, and where you think the market is and when you need to make a decision rather than when you might have to make a decision,” said the Red Sox president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski.

“When I say I can’t answer, it’s because it’s something we do talk about all the time internally. When are you actually confronted with having to make that final decision compared to speculating you might have to, and being ready to do it. We have spent a large majority of our time talking about that very question when we’ve been here because there’s a risk/reward attached to that. I don’t know if there’s a right answer to it.”

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The wait could even upend the conventional wisdom that the Sox are going to find a home run hitter. Instead of Martinez, they could go after a better all-around hitter like Santana or Hosmer.

“I don’t mean to snicker at three-run homers and home runs. I love them,” Dombrowski said. “But you have to make that decision if that’s the wisest thing for you to do to wait or decide on something else.”

In his annual winter meetings press conference, this one taking place just outside the media workroom while standing on top of a box, Boras disputed any desire to prolong the most important part of his job.

“I hear that year after year. I don’t know the incentive for me to wait if you have a meeting of the minds as to value,” Boras said. “I think any negotiation normally is 80 percent of the money is given at inception, but 80 percent of the time in the negotiation is about 20 percent of the dynamic of finalizing the negotiation. The dynamic in representation of the player is waiting. However, we never hear that teams are waiting.”

Nobody knows whether it’s time to blink or continue to stare. Why the uncertainty?

Boras has a theory.

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“What we see going on at the winter meetings has little to do with the negotiating dynamics of the clubs and the players’ representatives. It has more to do with the fact that we have seen no major contracts by any team for any player in this market – none – and the reason for that is trade haze,” Boras said.

“You’ve had two major diversions (Shohei Ohtani, Giancarlo Stanton) that have involved many, many clubs looking for free agents and consequently they were in appropriate due diligence. We are literally in many ways a month behind where we were before.”

Other teams want the players the Red Sox want, and those teams also are waiting.

The Giants, Mariners, Indians, Royals, Diamondbacks, Padres, Rockies, any of them, and perhaps another lurking team could tire of the wait before the Red Sox and strike with such shock and awe to wow a free agent into signing quickly.

Is it time to turn to Plan B yet? Maybe the better question is, is Plan B still there?

“I don’t know that answer,” Dombrowski said. “And it might change this hour compared to next hour with other information we get, because if you feel positive about some things you may be willing to wait, and if you’re indifferent or don’t know you may feel another way. All of a sudden another piece of information you gather, you feel a lot more positive about.

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“It’s a moving target that’s a very important ingredient in what we discuss and the decisions we make. I will be surprised if we don’t do something in that, but I can’t tell you that there may be a limit on the time frame in how long we wait.”

Time is a shifty concept.

It’s shifting under the Red Sox feet as we speak.

How much, we don’t have a clue. And neither do they.


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