Red Sox ownership is working to bring back former general manager Theo Epstein in a consulting/advisory position, according to team sources. Epstein would advise Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington, the members of the Sox' baseball operations team who are expected to serve as co-general managers for the 2006 season, barring a last-minute reversal by ownership. It is not known whether Epstein, who on Oct. 31 declined a three-year, $4.5 million contract offer to remain as GM, has been formally approached yet by the team's principal owner, John W. Henry, or team chairman Tom Werner, but Henry and Werner have made their intentions known internally, the sources said. Since Epstein's departure, Larry Lucchino, the team's president and chief executive officer, has conducted the search for a new GM and had appeared to focus on Jim Beattie, the former Orioles executive vice president, as his leading candidate. Beattie had at least three interviews for the position, but said yesterday he had not spoken with the Sox in a week.