The Red Sox general manager says it’s time for fans to move on.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – When Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein heard about Aaron Boone’s knee injury, he knew the Yankees might try to replace him with Alex Rodriguez.

But Epstein never thought seriously about reopening pursuit of the reigning AL most valuable player to keep him from Boston’s top rival.

“That ship had sailed,” Epstein said Thursday.

He defended the Red Sox’ plan for building the team – aggressive pursuit of players combined with financial discipline – that led them to go after Rodriguez and then back off.

“Fans were really disappointed in a lot of things we didn’t do last offseason. Things worked out,” he said. “Get used to it. Next year we’ll probably be sitting here saying, “you know, you guys really wanted this player X and player X went to the Yankees or some other team for a few million dollars more. What happened? Are you guys disappointed?’ No.”

“We’re going to build a team, a team for which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that’s what I think we have here.’

The Red Sox made it to Game 7 of the AL championship series and led 5-2 in the eighth before losing 6-5 on Boone’s 11th inning homer.

A few days later, they began their two-month effort to trade Manny Ramirez to Texas for Rodriguez. That failed after the players’ union refused Boston’s proposal to lower the value of Rodriguez’s contract.

The Yankees, the only team with a bigger payroll, became interested after Boone suffered a serious knee injury playing basketball on Jan. 16. They plan to use him at third base with Derek Jeter staying at shortstop. The Red Sox have Garciaparra at shortstop but planned to trade him to the Chicago White Sox for Magglio Ordonez if they had obtained Rodriguez.

Epstein said that during his negotiations for Rodriguez, having him play third base “was not an option,” although he declined to say whether that was expressed by the player.

He also said the possibility the Yankees might go after him later was “just a blip on the radar screen.”

But when Boone was hurt, “it became more of a reality,” Epstein said. “I remember turning to a couple of guys on my baseball operations staff and saying, “OK, what’s going on in Yankee Stadium right now?’ “

“I remember saying, “OK, A-Rod, (Eric) Chavez, (Edgardo) Alfonzo. What’s their list look like?’ And I guess we found out what their list looked like.”

Last offseason, the Red Sox added David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar and Todd Walker and set a major-league slugging percentage record. This offseason they added pitchers Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke and second baseman Pokey Reese.

They negotiations for Rodriguez started Oct. 19 and ended Dec. 23. The union rejected Boston’s proposal to reduce the value of the seven years remaining on Rodriguez’s contract by about $28 million.

“We’re going to walk away from a deal if the numbers don’t add up,” Epstein said.

He compared Rodriguez’s acquisition by New York rather than Boston to the teams’ competition last offseason for pitcher Jose Contreras, who signed with the Yankees for $32 million over four years. Boston fans were upset, but Contreras was inconsistent, although he is expected to be in New York’s rotation this year.

“We moved on and we spent our money wisely in other places,” Epstein said.

Had Boston exceeded its spending plan to get Rodriguez, it could have affected its ability to stay competitive in the long run, he said.

“We have tremendous resources, but it’s clear a team in our division has more resources, which is fine. I’m not complaining about that,” he said. “The way we deal with that is we are extremely aggressive. We’re going to work long and hard and look everywhere for ways to improve the club.”

He didn’t advocate a salary cap, as Red Sox owner John Henry did on Wednesday, but defended his boss.

“Before people overreact,” Epstein said, “just know that John absolutely has the best interests of the game and the Red Sox at heart.”

AP-ES-02-19-04 1757EST