Mark Shapiro Players Quotations

Most players were claimed on waivers, so there was a very small pool of players available,

It doesn't spit out players to pick, ... It's a framework for decision-making. It's all the information everybody else has -- maybe some different information -- but allows us to assemble and organize it in a way that we can make decisions a little more quickly.

The expectations for our team have been higher every year. Our players are ready for it. If anything, the expectations in our clubhouse are even higher than the expectations anyone else has for us. That's what you live for. You want expectations to be high like they are now.

There are a small number of players who have gotten to us on waivers, and the ones who have, we haven't been able to work out a deal with the player's team.

We are committed to building and sustaining a championship team and Grady -- as one of the most talented young players in the game today -- is the kind of player and person that can help lead us to that goal.

We were at the tail-end of a championship run. Instead of letting that run naturally just play out and transpire, we abruptly traded good players and artificially created an upper-level in our farm system.

We want our players to be aware of the short and long-term dangers of these substances. Until Rafael decides how he will address this finding, we will have no further comment on the situation.

We're so careful in our risk assessments that we may have a better chance of keeping our players on the field. And risk-assessment tools have absolutely gotten better.

At that point in my career, I didn't have an appreciation how difficult the transition is for young players to the big leagues. It's fortunate that everything's kind of broken right, that we've lived up to expectations. But that was a lofty expectation to place on the public here - no one's allowed me to forget that I gave that.

Boston is positioned extremely well for the future. They have a good farm system with upper-level players and a depth of pitching talent. They've rebuilt the farm system from a dilapidated system to a productive one. If they take a small step backward this year, at some point they will go on a run that will be an impressive run. They're a short period away.

It's similar in that both times we signed core players who we wanted to keep together for a run of championship baseball. That's what's most important about what's happening here now. We want to keep this team together.

It's a statement to how unique the players are.