Soxophrenia

So far this offseason, the Red Sox front office has gotten their asses handed to them -- twice -- by the Blue Jays front office; not made a contract offer to Cody Ross but signed a backup outfielder to a 2 year, $10 million deal; salivated over Mike Napoli while not mentioning peep about Adam LaRoche; added another catcher onto a roster full of catchers; and now they are talking with the Royals about trading Jon Lester for a prospect.  This is the same Jon Lester that still has potential to blossom into an ace, but he was really thrown under the bus with mechanical problems and John Valentine's inability to coach last season. 

After ditching Theo's master plan last season, has anyone figured out Ben Cherington's plan to build this team?  Does he even have a plan?  Because if Jon Lester gets traded for a prospect, why even waste money pretending to compete by signing Napoli for 4 years?  Just place Mauro Gomez at first for a couple seasons, throw Pedro Ciriaco in the outfield since he's a better player than Kalish, coast on a small payroll while letting prospects like Rubby De La Rosa, Jose Iglesias develop at the MLB level; hope that the hype surrounding Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts pans out while praying that Lavarnway finds his focus behind and at the plate.  Then take the money saved from not signing Napoli or Ellsbury, as well as Lackey's contract expiring, and pour it into a better free agent market a couple years from now and get the vets needed to construct a team that competes again. 

Or try to build a competing team now. 

But, really, just what the fuck is the Red Sox plan here?  Can anyone figure it out?