Random Thoughts

Terry Francona prefers to avoid team meetings. But from the look on the manager’s face following yesterday’s closed-door session at Fenway Park [map], the gathering had the uplifting effect of a good old-fashioned revival, minus the preaching.

Francona and general manager Theo Epstein officially welcomed Jason Bay following Thursday’s blockbuster three-team deal that sent Manny Ramirez [stats] to Los Angeles and Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to Pittsburgh. More importantly, they were able to give an exhale-inducing goodbye to the unneeded tension, drama and antics of an enigmatic slugger who had clearly overstayed his welcome and appeared to be doing anything he could to rip the club apart.

Francona, who was forced to deal with Ramirez’ volatility and unpredictability on a daily basis, looked exhausted and relieved at a press conference following the team meeting. Epstein seemed content, seemingly satisfied that he made the best of an awful situation.“There was some things going on with the team that were real and not just imagined,” Epstein said. “There was a dynamic that had been created that made it more difficult for us to go play at our best and for players to perform.

“I’m proud of what the organization did,” he added. “I think it put us in a good position going forward from a baseball standpoint, and from the standpoint . . . of standing for something as an organization. I think the team comes first.

“We just had a meeting. There’s 25 guys down there that now feel like a team, and it hasn’t felt like that for a while - and you have to feel like that in professional sports to perform at your best.”

Francona - who said he was “pleased, very pleased” by the conclusion of the melodrama - said it was time to put everything in the past and concentrate on climbing out of a rut that landed them three games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

“It didn’t seem like we were handling the challenge up to what we were needing to,” Francona said. “We discussed some of that today.”

Epstein said the Sox did not announce the deal until yesterday due to its complexity. He said things were further delayed when the Major League Baseball’s computer system crashed Thursday night.

For much of the day, it appeared that Ramirez would be going to the Marlins. But when that deal fell apart as the 4 p.m. deadline approached, the Sox and Pirates quickly refocused on the Dodgers.

“It was a crazy day,” Epstein said. “There was a lot of doubt. There were different versions of the deal that died and this particular version didn’t truly get resuscitated until a couple of minutes before the deadline.”

Unlike the four-team trade on July 31, 2004, that sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs and landed the Sox several key components in their eventual championship run, Epstein said a major overhaul wasn’t needed this time.

“We have the best run-differential in the American League and I think we have a chance to be the best club in the American League,” said Epstein. “We lost one of the best hitters in probably the history of baseball, but we gained a really good baseball player who can help us win, so I don’t think we have to catch lightning in a bottle.

“We have to get back to being a team and go out and perform up to our expectations,” Epstein added.

Epstein said it was wrong to view Bay as Ramirez’ “replacement.”

“I don’t think that’s fair to any player. We’re not asking him to fill those shoes,” he said. “We’re asking him to be a contributing member of a winning baseball team.”