One way or the other, the Boston Red Sox plan to resolve Jon Lester's contract situation by Opening Day.
With David Ortiz having signed a one-year contract extension, many believe Lester is next in line.
"I can't handicap it," Ben Cherington said. "We're still talking. There's nothing else to report but that. I think the spirit of it has continued to be open and sharing information and also focusing in on resolving it one way or another this week before we get into Opening Day. But aside from that, I can't speculate on it."
Lester is entering the $13 million option year on the contract he signed back in 2009.
"Any time you can talk and share information and understand each perspective better, that's a form of progress," said Cherington. "I think saying anything more than that is sort of unfair to the process and not consistently with what we've agreed with Jon and [agent] Seth [Levinson] in terms of keeping the talks behind closed doors.
"We have great respect for Jon. He's obviously preparing to take the ball on Opening Day, and that's what he's focused on mostly. No matter what happens this week, we're going to support him fully and our preferred position is that he remains in a Red Sox uniform past 2014 and that won't change, no matter what happens the rest of this week."