Dombrowski's track record suggests Red Sox could land a bat quickly this off-season

ORLANDO – If history is any guide, the Red Sox may strike quickly this off-season.

This marks president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s third off-season with the Red Sox, and in the first two, Dombrowski took an aggressive, almost preemptive approach to filling his team’s needs.

In 2016, his first winter since taking over the previous August, Dombrowski traded for closer Craig Kimbrel shortly after the GM meetings concluded, then signed free agent starter David Price days before the winter meetings began.

Last year, Dombrowski saved his biggest moves – trading for Chris Sale and signing free agent first baseman Mitch Moreland – for the winter meetings, but the Sale deal was one that first gained some traction at the GM Meetings weeks beforehand.

While baseball’s off-season has become more protracted in recent years with scores of free agents still unsigned into the New Year, Dombrowski has steadfastly bucked that trend.

Ordinarily, the GM meetings are better known for foundation-laying, where executives go to gauge interest in players they may have available, inquire about asking prices for those players targeted in trades and begin conversations with representatives of free agents.

But this season could see things escalate quickly, given the availability of one player in particular: Giancarlo Stanton.

Desperate to trim their payroll, the Miami Marlins are set to auction off the slugger who led all of baseball in 2017 with 59 homers.

Stanton has 10 years and a staggering $295 million remaining on his contract, which the Marlins, even with new ownership, cannot afford. As such, they’re open for business.

Given the size of Stanton’s deal, the handful of teams said to have various levels of interest – the Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies among them – would seem to want Stanton’s situation addressed before moving on to other items on their off-season shopping list.

After all, it’s not as if those teams can decide to add nearly $300 million in salary in, say, January, when budgets are already reached.  Thus, if Stanton is going to be traded, it likely will come this month, allowing teams who are in search of offense to pursue other options.

The Sox’ level of interest in Stanton is uncertain. Dombrowski has said he expects to perform his “due diligence’’ in seeking an offensive upgrade for the Sox, and no one represents a bigger upgrade than Stanton.

Despite a report in the Miami Herald last weekend that depicted talks between the Marlins and Red Sox as “heating up,’’  however, it would seem that the Sox would prefer to go the free agent route to fill their need, since they could do so without sacrificing any talent from their roster.

The most attractive free agent hitter on the market is J.D. Martinez, followed by Eric Hosmer. But since both players are represented by agent Scott Boras,  they’re unlikely to sign anytime soon since Boras typically allows the market to form before getting his players signed.

Toward that end, Dombrowski was set to meet Monday with the agents for Carlos Santana and Logan Morrison, two free agent first basemen. The meeting with Morrison's reps was first reported by NBCSports Boston.

The left-handed Morrison, 30, hit 38 homers last season for Tampa Bay, while the switch-hitting Santana, 32, is a more complete player but with somewhat less power, having hit 23 homers in 2017 following a 2016 season that saw him hit 34.

Santana is one of nine players who was given a qualifying offer earlier this month, meaning he would cost the Red Sox their second draft pick next June and $500,000 in international bonus pool money.