Just days after former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein admitted in several interviews that the pressure to win and the "monster" of expectations in Boston might have led to some poor baseball decisions, chairman Tom Werner defended ownership and restated their priorities during an appearance on WEEI on Monday.

"Well, look, is there pressure to win in Boston? Of course there's pressure to win in Boston. We don't apologize for that," he said. "We worked with Theo for a decade, we certainly had a lot of success with him, but my feeling is we have to ask our organization and we have to expect from them that we're going to be competitive every year. I don't think we have the right in this market in good conscience to say to our fans we're going to have a bridge year."

When told that Epstein seemed to indicate that he was pressured to make splashy free-agent signings in the interest of TV ratings, Fenway Park sellouts and other business interests, Werner bristled. "I would vehemently disagree with that," he said.

"We are responsible for trying to create enough revenue so we can support the second-highest payroll in baseball," he said. "I don't make any apologies for that. We can't say to our fans we're going to ask you to pay a high price for a ticket but we're not going to have a competitive team."

He added, "We don't dictate who Theo or Ben should sign."

"There's this sense that non-baseball people are telling baseball people what to do, but what we do is try to create the revenue streams for our baseball operations people to be successful," he said.

Werner insisted the ownership team never pressured Epstein to make big offseason moves. "What we say to them is, 'How do we get to the World Series?'" he said.