Uncle! Floyd Out of Boston-Red Sox Feel Oggie

Cliff Floyd decline arbitration withe the Red Sox. The Sox can still negotitate with him but it seems apparent that he's headed elsewhere. There have been a lot of rumors about his going to the Mets.

Now, the Jeremy Giambi deal becomes pretty big. Giambi will probably start in left (instead of spreading him between first, left, and DH as the Sox probably intended). That means that Daubach will probaby be the starting first baseman (and that the Sox will actually offer him a contract before the deadline tonight).

That's kind of a spanner thrown into Epstein's works. He had been plugging some serious holes with modestly good player but apparently relied on retaining Floyd. So with all of his good work, he's kind of back to square one.