It's bad enough that the Boston Red Sox have a long history of finishing behind the New York Yankees in the standings. But when the pattern extends itself to the offseason and the free-agent market, it's doubly painful.

The Red Sox had earmarked Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras as their top priority, feeling that the 31-year-old right-ander would strengthen their starting rotation without depleting their personnel. Surely, adding Contreras to a rotation fronted by Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe would establish the Sox as one of the teams to beat in the American League.

	“	It's very difficult to bid against a team that has an unlimited budget. It doesn't matter how many outfielders or how many (starting pitchers) they have. With an unlimited budget you can buy anyone you think you need. ”
		— Red Sox owner John Henry on the Yankees

Diving into the international free-gent pool with gusto, the Sox aggressively pursued Contreras. Principal owner John Henry hosted Contreras at his south Florida home while former pitching great Luis Tiant, a Cuban idol, hyped both the city of Boston and the Red Sox franchise.

International scouting director Luis Eljaua was particularly relentless, enlisting new bullpen coach Euclides Rojas, a former closer in Cuba, as part of the recruiting team. The Red Sox were prepared to go dollar-for-dollar and year-for-year.

It soon became apparent that the bidding for Contreras would come down to the Red Sox and Yankees. The Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers were in Nicaragua earlier this week, and agent Jaime Torres kept in contact with several other teams by phone. But it was understood that Contreras would almost certainly choose betweent the two long-time rivals.

But instead of sitting back and allowing the two clubs to drive the bidding upward, Torres surprised everyone -- and enraged the Red Sox -- when he abruptly cut off the negotiations even though the Sox were willing to improve their offer.

"They stopped the bidding in the middle of this,'' claimed Henry after Contreras had agreed to a four-year deal worth $32 million with the Yankees. "Who knows how much of a difference there would have been in the offers, since they were stopped?''

The news was doubly deflating for the Red Sox, who not only missed out on their No. 1 priority, but watched him go to their chief competitor. Instead of closing the gap between themselves and the Yanks, the Sox saw it widen further.

The Sox are committed to reducing payroll, dropping from $120 million last season to just under $100 million for 2003. But they were willing to spend freely on Contreras, rationalizing that the outlay could come under their international scouting budget. But in the end, the Yankees had too much to counter -- history, tradition, resources and New York.

"It's very difficult to bid against a team that has an unlimited budget,'' said Henry. "It doesn't matter how many outfielders or how many (starting pitchers) they have. With an unlimited budget you can buy anyone you think you need.''

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who has vowed to cut payroll too, couldn't resist adding another shiny bauble to his collection of starters -- particularly with the Red Sox's interest.

"We couldn't -- the right word is, we wouldn't -- sacrifice the opportunity to sign these talents (Contreras and Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui) on the basis of reducing payroll first,'' said Yankees GM Brian Cashman.

For Red Sox followers, the pattern was a familiar one. After the Sox allowed Mo Vaughn to sign with Anaheim after the 1998 season, they went after Bernie Williams and believed they had the outfielder signed before he returned to the Bronx at the 11th hour.

	With the Expos needing to cut payroll, the Red Sox still are candidates to land Bartolo Colon.

Two years later, Mike Mussina had agreed to a contract with the Yankees before the Sox could get around to preparing an offer. Motivated to do something to stir offseason interest, the Sox wildly overspent for Manny Ramirez.

While the Yankees now have a glut of starters (Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, David Wells, Orlando Hernandez, Jose Contreras, Jeff Weaver), they are also expected to re-sign Roger Clemens. The Red Sox, meanwhile, go back to the drawing board.

Needing another premier starter, the Sox now turn their attention back to the Montreal Expos, who are under a directive from Major League Baseball to reduce their payroll and, as such, are willing to move either Bartolo Colon or Javier Vasquez to meet that goal. The Sox and Expos held extensive talks at the winter meetings in Nashville two weeks ago, with the Sox ultimately unwilling to take on third baseman Fernando Tatis as a condition to the deal.

In Nashville, Expos general manager Omar Minaya attempted to play the Sox against the Yankees and vice versa, hoping to hike his asking price. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein said that hearing other general managers and agents casually interject Yankees GM Brian Cashman's name in negotiations is an expected part of the process.

"That,'' he said, "was one of the first rules I learned on this job.''

If it's any consolation to Epstein, it appears the signing of Matsui and Contreras, and the expected return of Clemens has frozen the Yankees payroll, taking them out of the running for either Expos starting pitcher. Colon is set to make $8.25 million next season and Vazquez, eligible for salary arbitration, has been pegged at just under $7 million.

Either player would seem too steep to acquire at this point even for the Yankees, who have yet to rid themselves of burdensome contracts from the likes of Raul Mondesi, Rondell White and Sterling Hitchcock.

With the Yankees seemingly out of the running and so few teams positioned to add salary, the Sox could still have their pick of pitchers. The Expos have a mandate to cut costs and don't have much in the way of trading partners.

In many ways, Colon and/or Vazquez represent less risk to the Sox than would Contreras. Colon and Vazquez have each won at the major league level and have already acclimated themselves to American culture. The financial commitment is less -- at least in the short term -- and both Montreal starters are younger than Contreras, who purports to be 31 but could be older.

But that doesn't lessen the sting for the Red Sox. Losing to the Yankees, it would seem, doesn't end when the season does.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.