BOSTON (AP) Getting under baseball's luxury tax threshold next year "is a goal, but not a hard-and-fast mandate," Boston Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy said Monday, a day after the defending World Series champions finished the season out of the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

Three days after owner John Henry said "we need to be under" the competitive balance tax, Kennedy said that is merely a "guidepost for our budgeting" as the team tries to hold onto Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez while cutting salary below the $208 million CBT threshold.

Oh, and still improving the team enough to return to the postseason in 2020.