Couple quick hit updates for your asses:

Mark Kotsay is on the verge of re-signing with the Sox. Details have the deal being of the one-year variety for $1.5 mil plus incentives. It's a solid move as it will provide added insurance in the outfield in the event the Baldelli move doesn't pan out, and it gives some the Sox some depth at the corners as Kotsay can play an adequate first base (with Youk taking third if a Lowell absence arises). Kotsay's never been great and likely couldn't have done better in terms of playing time elsewhere, but you know what you're getting with him, and $1.5 million is hardly unreasonable for a reliable backup OF.

MLB.com is reporting that the Sox are still in hot pursuit of the one, the only, the Captain - Jason Varitek. The Sox don't want to appear too desperate, so of course Epstein hints that Bard, Kottaras and Dusty Brown could do a good job if need be. But you know as well as I do that there's no way the Sox are entering the season with a 3-headed platoon headed by Josh freaking Bard. I'm personally getting a little tired of this whole thing and would like a resolution, like, yesterday, but what do I know? In the end, I see Tek coming back for two years and about $14 to $16 million (yes, they'd be overpaying at that rate, but we can't have Boras' ego getting hurt, can we?), perhaps with a club option to satiate his desire for more years.