The Red Sox have a lot of changes to make this offseason, but they haven't done much as Thanksgiving approaches.

"I never think about it that way. We're working hard every day to execute the plan that we have. I've found that the best opportunities in free agency often come later in the offseason," Ben Cherington said.

"That [Blue Jays-Marlins trade] got everybody's attention. But it's still relatively early. It's not even Thanksgiving. I think most people understand we have a long way to go.

"We have a lot of work to do because we lost 93 games. But there's no doubt that with some of the other things you have to do — the manager, the coaching staff, the infrastructure scouting-wise — we're ahead of where we were last year. We've spent a lot more time on player issues at this time as compared to last year. That doesn't always turn into announcements. You can't predict when it will happen."