Remember when I said that the Yankees and Mets should be treated like movie slashers when it comes to the pursuit of a free agent? That you can’t count them out until they’re truly, truly dead, and that even then you should pour gasoline on the corpse and light it just to be sure? I should have included the Red Sox in that, because this is what I meant:
The Red Sox, who maintained radio silence before signing free-agent pitcher John Lackey and were almost as circumspect in their pursuit of free-agent third baseman Adrian Beltre before signing him, are conducting another stealth operation, this time in their attempts to sign Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman.
Contrary to reports that have pegged the Angels and Blue Jays as favorites to sign the 22-year-old pitcher, the Red Sox remain very much in the picture, one major league executive predicting that either the Sox or Yankees will sign him.