Cherington: We want Ortiz back with Red Sox

Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington -- speaking after managerial candidate Torey Lovullo's press conference at Fenway Park -- reiterated the organization's desire to re-sign designated hitter David Ortiz, explaining that talks between the club and Ortiz' representatives are ongoing.

"We have had a lot of dialogue with David and his agents," Cherington said. "Because of what I feel, and I think he feels, is a little bit more of a defined market for that role it's been easier to engage sooner. It's probably less likely to be a situation where he gets into the market and there's something that he's pushed into a corner on. David knows we want him to be here. We want him to be back with the Red Sox. We want him in our lineup. We've had a lot of dialogue to see if there's a way to do that and I think that will continue."

As for Cherington's view of the prospects of getting in the chase for starting pitching in the free agent market, the GM warned that it was a position that might be a bit more riskier to pursue than some others.

"There are options, probably not as strong as the bullpen, closer market, the way we see it," he explained. "There are options, but riskier and would require some sort of bounce back from injury or bad luck or performance to some degree. We're going to be exhaustive in looking at ways to build depth to the rotation an the bullpen. We do believe we have some internal options that will help us. But past the sort of top of the starters market there's a lot of risk there."

In other Red Sox news, Cherington said that there would be no plans on to bring in additional managerial candidates after Saturday's interview with Gene Lamont. He also said the Sox have not been formally turned down by any organization when asking permission to interview a candidate.

Cherington also touched on the progress of reliever Bobby Jenks, who was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in September. Jenks will be taking medicine for the embolism leading up to his schedule surgery date in early December. The hope that the pitcher will be ready to throw in spring training games, although it is uncertain if that means he would be ready to participate when the exhibition schedule begins.

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