updated 7:45 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2004

FORT MYERS, Fla. - 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 MVP.

“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 A-Rod. That failed after the players’ union refused Boston’s proposal to lower the present-day value of Rodriguez’s contract by about $30 million.

The Yankees, the only team with a bigger payroll, became interested after Boone tore a knee ligament playing basketball on Jan. 16. They plan to use Rodriguez at third base, with Derek Jeter staying at shortstop.

Boston has Nomar 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?’ “

Boston’s negotiations for Rodriguez started Oct. 19 and ended Dec. 23.

“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 to the teams’ competition last offseason for pitcher Jose Contreras, who signed with the Yankees for $32 million over four years.

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

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

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