David Stearns

How far to talk to them would be as you get more desire to actually talk to them?

I'm not going to comment on any specific contract negotiations.

I would imagine over the course of the offseason we're going to add to our bullpen.

You never know exactly how the back end of your bullpen is going to take shape, but I would certainly imagine over the course of the offseason we're going to add to our bullpen.

We have plenty of vacancies there, and I think we'll have the opportunity to improve that area.

Did you see Senga in that role?

He struggled.

I mean, that might present its own challenge.

I think right now we view Senga as part of our rotation.

He's proven at the major league level that he can have really good years, and clearly the last two years at times have been struggles for him.

But the talent is there.

The desire is certainly there to have a bounce-back year, and we're going to give him every opportunity to do that.

I think length of contract, number of existing commitments, that's always going to be

a conversation we have to have internally.

And somewhere there is a tipping point there.

I don't think we're necessarily there yet, but sure, somewhere there is a tipping point.

I also recognize that you generally

get good free agents when they're in their 30s and to get good free agents, sometimes you have to extend them into places in their career where performance isn't always going to go up.

And I don't want to put philosophy in my words, but it's felt like you love the idea of fighting, of flexibility, roster-wise, being able to move.

And at some point, you begin to land on yourself, don't you?