“We’re just scrappy underdogs trying to win for our franchise and our fans,” he said.

Lucchino also forcefully defended team executives, saying all revenue produced is funneled back into the team.

“We are concerned about generating revenue, make no mistake about that,” he said. “We’re not embarrassed or apologetic about that.

“We’re not the largest market in baseball. As far as a television market, we’re 22d in all of baseball as far as TV homes. But we overproduce and generate revenue beyond that television market size.”

Boston is the seventh-largest Nielsen television market in the nation. But MLB defines markets based on a larger geographical area and population. Lucchino’s assertion is correct, a spokesman said.

The Red Sox signed seven free agents during the offseason, none to contracts longer than three years. That is an intentional shift in philosophy, but not one that is sacrosanct.

“We’ll look for deals that make sense. We’ll have exceptions, too,” Lucchino said. “One of the lessons we learned in recent years is that we’d rather pay a little more on a shorter-term deal than have a multiyear contract that goes out five, six, seven, eight years.