ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Saturday’s statement from Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein in response to comments by pitcher Pedro Martinez:

“The goal of the Boston Red Sox is to build a team every year that can compete for, and win, a World Series. These are our core values: team over individual, a World Series over everything else.

“Although building a winning team is our primary focus, we have the utmost respect and admiration for our individual players and the sacrifices and contributions they make to help the organization achieve its goals.

“We respect our players. We tell our players the truth. We listen to our players. We protect our players. We negotiate with our players in good faith, and we make every effort not to discuss these negotiations in public. We want our players to succeed, and we do everything we can to help them win.

“Sometimes, however, our commitment to building winning teams, every year, means that we will have disagreements with our players about the length and precise value of their next contracts. These disagreements are unfortunate but they are inevitable. They will be resolved in time. In the meantime, we continue to focus on our most important mission: winning.”

AP-ES-05-01-04 1708EDT