Theo Epstein addressed the decision to designate shortstop Julio Lugo for assignment, labeling the signing a mistake and blaming himself for it. Not much context now, but here were Epstein's initial, big-picture thoughts:

"I think it’s just a matter of putting our best team on the field," Epstein said. "That’s really the motivation behind it. Jed Lowrie, ready to be recalled tomorrow. Nick Green playing well and out of options. Felt like those two would be our best combination for the shortstop position at this point.

"I think ownership 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. We’re sorry it didn’t work out better with Julio, obviously. But keeping him on the team wasn’t going to change that. Sometimes the best organizations admit their mistakes and they move on. And that’s what we’re doing here.

"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, that’s on me. We’ll just move on and be a better organization having gone through it, and we’ll make better decisions going forward."