Cody Ross Good As Gone As Saturday Dawns

Has Cody Barred The Door?

Despite protestations by Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, the failure to reach agreement with Cody Ross effectively means the outfielder will likely be taking his talents elsewhere. Cherington tried to dance around the issue on WEEI's Hot Stove program on Thursday:

"One of the things we talked about was wanting to put him in a situation where he could be in a better position this offseason than he was last year. We wanted it to work for the team and work for him. We didn’t get the job done on a team basis, but it did work out for him. He’s in a better position this year than he was last year. That’s good for him. It creates a bigger challenge for us in trying to find a deal that works for him and works for us. We have talked, and talked a lot. Time will tell. He’ll have options. We’ll have to weigh what it would take to sign him versus alternatives in the market."

Bottom line: We now have two holes in our outfield and one of them will probably be filled with a "Ryan's Hope" desperation option: Ryan Ludwick or Ryan Kalish.