Starting depth puts Red Sox in position of strength

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The Red Sox have a problem many teams would love to have -- an overflow in the rotation, with Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Felix Doubront, Jake Peavy and Ryan Dempster all under contract for next season.

That leaves the Red Sox with two options. The first is moving one of those pitchers to help fill a less certain spot, such as shortstop or center field.

"There's been a handful of teams that have been calling, really since the beginning of the offseason, and that hasn't really changed since some of the free agents have gone off the board," said general manager Ben Cherington. "Some of those free agents landed in spots that weren't necessarily matches anyway. I wouldn't say it's changed much since the beginning of the offseason. That doesn't mean we're close to doing anything; we're not. We're still hearing from teams."

The other option for Cherington would be to do absolutely nothing and see how his rotation shakes out come Spring Training.

"We're very comfortable not doing anything. We're very comfortable just holding everyone," he said. "We all know that with starting pitching, a supposed surplus has a way of working itself out usually. ... If the movement with free agents or trades or whatever creates motivation on some teams' part, or when that leads to something that makes sense for us, then we'll certainly listen and consider it."