It’s easy to forget, given the three-game sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels in the Division Series, but the Red Sox won 95 games and scored the third-most runs in the game. Only the Yankees had a higher OPS.

“You can’t call any season a success unless you’ve won the World Series,’’ said general manager Theo Epstein. “But at the same time, I think people get too carried away in judging where you are as a franchise based on what happened in October.

“We had three bad games. We didn’t perform well in October. But we met a lot of our regular-season goals this year and [had] the type of club we want to build.’’

Newly minted Padres general manager Jed Hoyer, Epstein’s former assistant, doesn’t expect any big baseball headlines to come out of Boston this winter.

“They could have a very slow offseason in some ways,’’ he said.

But during a break in the general managers’ meetings, Epstein sounded eager for the unexpected.

“I think we have a lot to do,’’ he said. “But I’m not so sure there are obvious ways to do it. So we’re going to have to explore creative ways to get better.’’

The opportunity is there for this offseason to become a significant one. The Red Sox have the young, affordable players other teams covet and the ability to expand their payroll under the right circumstances. Given the shallow free agent market, the Sox could seek change via trade.

“I don’t think we can just show up next year with a largely status quo situation and have the exact same club,’’ Epstein said. “It’s an interesting offseason because there aren’t a lot of obvious ways to improve.

“Every dollar counts. Hopefully we’ll sign Jason Bay. But if we can’t, we’ll have to get creative in left field. It could a big-money guy, it could mean a couple of lesser investments; it could mean we try to get better at a different position.’’

As GMs try to leverage their positions, they speak of trading star players in unlikely terms. Hoyer said he was under no pressure to move first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and new Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos said it would require “elite’’ talent to deal Roy Halladay.

But big deals have a way of suddenly happening (remember Nomar Garciaparra?). Epstein said he has the wherewithal to expand the payroll under the right circumstances.

“For a player that’s so impactful that he changes both the short-term outlook and the long-term outlook, I think generally we have the ability to do what we want to do,’’ he said. “Ownership is always completely committed and we have a lot of resources.’’

For now, the Red Sox attend to internal matters. Catcher Jason Varitek has until today to inform the team whether he will exercise his $3 million option. Epstein had a meeting scheduled with agent Scott Boras last night to discuss that.

“I know Jason well enough not to speculate on what Jason wants,’’ said Boras. “I think that’s just something he’s going to have to let me know.’’

Boras could try to renegotiate the option, an idea Epstein found less than thrilling.

“We can always sit down,’’ he said. “But it seems like a straightforward thing.’’

Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com.