A pair of left-handed swinging non-roster invitees, Lyle Overbay and Ryan Sweeney, have opt-out dates in their contract: Overbay's is Tuesday, Sweeney's Thursday.
A couple of contracts could force general manager Ben Cherington to make decisions a little earlier than he'd prefer this week as he tries to finalize his roster.
Lyle Overbay and Ryan Sweeney, both left-handed swinging non-roster invitees, have opt-out dates. Overbay's is Tuesday, Sweeney's Thursday.
"There’ll be more (conversations) today and tomorrow," Sox manager John Farrell said Monday. "We’re well aware of the dates both he and Ryan have looming. That’ll all be factored in.”
Neither player knows yet what's going to happen.
"It’s going to work out either way," Overbay said Monday. "If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’m just kind of getting ready for the season, doing what I need to do. I’m not going to lie and say you’re not thinking about it but it’s something you can’t really control so it’s something I’m going to put on the back-burner and not worry about it.”
Said Sweeney:"I think my agent's been talking to 'em and I think they still don't know what they're going to do. With everything it comes down to with me and Lyle and all of the other guys, it's up to them. I think the main thing, Ben told me that it was my job to lose coming into spring training."
For all the hype around Jackie Bradley Jr. potentially making the team, that scenario wouldn't help Sweeney any. Daniel Nava and Mike Carp factor in as well, and both players are already on the 40-man roster.
Here's how the opt-out process works, using Sweeney as the example. If he is not on the 40-man roster on Thursday, he has 24 hours to request his release. If that request his made, the team has 48 hours to add Sweeney to the roster, release him — or work something else out. So the process could, theoretically, take as long as 72 hours, until March 31.
Both Sweeney and Overbay's clauses pertain to being added to the 40-man roster, not the 25-man roster.
While the opt-out situations could drag on, they're typically treated as gentleman agreements. Players want to latch on anywhere they can at this point in spring, and that gets harder the closer you get to Opening Day. Teams don't want a reputation of burning someone.
It follows, then, that even though opt-out dates are a part of contract language, they're not written in stone: Rich Hill, the former Red Sox pitcher, pushed back an opt-out date in 2010 with the Cardinals. The Red Sox worked around things with Aaron Cook last May.
Overbay, 36, who started at first base on Monday against the Orioles in Sarasota, entered the day with a .222/.341/.361 in 36 at-bats. Sweeney, 28, carried at .244/.326/.268 line in 41 at-bats. Neither player has homered.
"I have enough faith in them that they know what I’m trying to do," Overbay said. "I think they can evaluate whether or not … I mean, the numbers aren’t all that great. I understand that. But there’s sometimes, like I said, I’m not swinging at the first-pitch fastball. I’m swinging at offspeed pitches that I probably shouldn’t be. But I want to get that timing down and just kind of get to know where I’m at on the offspeed so I’ve been swinging and missing at some offspeed that I don’t even really swing at. Like I said, I think they can tell. If I’ve got a slow bat, if I’m not .. those kind of things … I think they can evaluate without having those." numbers.”
Sweeney said spring training can be "a false judge," particularly for guys like him and Overbay who have been around.
"I want to be on this team and I think even moreso now being with this group of guys and this coaching staff," Sweeney said. "I think we got something good here. So hopefully, hopefully everything works out. But if it doesn't, just move on and see what happens."
Follow MassLive.com Red Sox beat writer @EvanDrellich on Twitter. He can be reached by email at evan.drellich@masslive.com.