The Boston Red Sox have moved past the "preliminary" stage of talks with the Toronto Blue Jays in regards to compensation for acquiring manager John Farrell, reports Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

Major League source: Sox-Jaysbeyond "preliminary" stage of compensation talks in a deal for Toronto manager John Farrell.

— Nick Cafardo (@nickcafardo) October 18, 2012

Until yesterday, the Blue Jays had made no indication of their interest in parting with their second-year manager. Now that talks have moved beyond a preliminary discussion, however, it seems very probable that the Blue Jays could be on the hunt for a new manager by the end of the month.

Farrell still has one year remaining on his three-year deal with Toronto, meaning that the Red Sox will have to offer some sort of compensation to steal him away to Boston. As the Blue Jays will need to begin their manager search as quickly as possible if Farrell does depart, it is unlikely that the compensation process will drag out very long, if at all, like it did last year when Theo Epstein left for Chicago.

If the Red Sox cannot come to an agreement with Farrell and the Blue Jays, they have four other managerial candidates -- all of whom have already been interviewed --- waiting in the wings to take the job. Yankees bench coach Tony Pena, Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach, Padres special assistant Brad Ausmus and Orioles third base coach DeMarlo Hale are the four other candidates competing for the position.