FORT MYERS, Fla. — Today marks the day when official activity commences in spring training. It’s not exactly going to inspire visions of the home stretch of the playoff race, but with almost all pitchers and catchers accounted for (with the possible exceptions of Dennys Reyes and Alfredo Aceves, who face a couple days of visa-related issues), the Sox will conduct a conditioning drill today in one of the annual rites of spring.

With the real beginning of spring training, here’s a look back at what’s taken place so far in Fort Myers:

Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's unusual offseason and status beyond 2010 have been a popular topic in Fort Myers. (AP)

–GM Theo Epstein gave his view on the state of the Red Sox roster, and manager Terry Francona did the same.

–The bullpen was a major shortcoming for the Sox in 2010. Part of the Sox’ offseason shopping spree was dedicated to upgrading it, though in the early stages of spring training (an otherwise sleepy time when paint dries and players play catch on flat ground), that has been subject to questions about dynamics and the future.

Jonathan Papelbon said that he is aware that this could be his last season in Boston, but that he doesn’t anticipate that affecting his 2011 season, even as he wants to position himself to be the top closer on the market.

Bobby Jenks, signed as a free agent this offseason, could be a closer-in-waiting either in 2012 (if Papelbon leaves as a free agent) or even this year (if the longtime Sox closer falters). But he has no ambitions of fomenting a closer controversy, and pronounced upon arriving that he’s not looking to step on anyone’s toes. The opportunity to sign with the Red Sox as a setup man, he said, outweighed the chance provided by other clubs to close.

The other potential closer-in-waiting, Daniel Bard, said that he is excited about the fact that the Sox bullpen can redistribute the workload a bit, something that could leave all of the relievers feeling fresh down the stretch. That is the forecast for this year. Down the road, the right-hander suggested that he would be open to trying his hand at starting once again.

There are 21 pitchers in Red Sox camp competing for the last two spots in the big league bullpen. Here’s a look at who has options, who’s on minor league deals and whom the Sox would risk losing if they don’t make the Opening Day roster. Here’s a closer look at 15 of the 21 candidates.

–While such players on the fringes of the roster may be unfamiliar and seem to have little relevance in the spring, the Sox staff actually spends more time focusing on such players than on established veterans, and with good reason. Here’s a look at why, as well as some of the measures that the team takes in order to ensure that players with unfamiliar faces feel comfortable in their clubhouse.

–Dustin Pedroia checked into Fort Myers, where he pronounced himself healthy and ready to play without restrictions following his recovery from a procedure to insert a screw in his broken left foot. He also endured much grief about his new hair style, which was compared by manager Terry Francona to that of Giovanni Ribisi. The comparisons don’t stop there — Pedroia shares an opinion with consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader about a particularly egregious act of consumer fraud.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Pedroia has returned from a disastrous broken bone. As a high school freshman quarterback, he had his led snapped on an option play (though rumors that Bears linebacker Lance Briggs delivered the hit appear unfounded). His recovery from that injury, said his high school coach Rob Rinaldi, bodes well for his return from this injury. Read the rest of this entry »

Manny Delcarmen is still young. He will turn 29 next week. And yet, after being traded last August by the only team for whom he’d ever played and then being released by the club that dealt for him in December, his career reached something of a crossroads this offseason.

After the Rockies elected not to tender a contract for 2011 to reliever Manny Delcarmen in early December, a number of teams expressed interest in the right-hander. Nine teams requested medicals from his agent, Jim Masteralexis, at the winter meetings in Orlando, and Delcarmen received multiple offers, including one offer of a major league deal with a National League club. One NL team even considered signing Delcarmen with an eye on using him as a starter, believing his three-pitch arsenal (a fastball, curve and changeup, all of which have been swing-and-miss offerings at times in his career) could serve him well in the rotation.

But in the end, Delcarmen’s decision came down to the Mariners and Rays. Both teams feature bullpens in some flux, with Tampa Bay looking to reassemble a relief corps after seeing four pitchers leave via free agency and Seattle closer David Aardsma recovering from surgery to repair his hip labrum. Both clubs offered opportunities for Delcarmen, if healthy and effective, to carve out a meaningful role in the bullpen.

In the end, Delcarmen decided to sign an incentive-laden minor league deal with an invitation to big league spring training with the Mariners. The possibility of pitching at critical junctures of the game appealed to him.

“The main factor was opportunity,” said Masteralexis. “There’s opportunity there for him.”

Delcarmen was a tremendously effective reliever for the Sox in 2007 and 2008, forging a 2.81 ERA with 8.6 punchouts per nine innings. The last two years have seen disappointing results, with effective starts to the season giving way to disappointing ends. He had a 4.74 ERA in the last two years, with his strikeouts per nine dropping to 6.6, and his walks totals spiking.

The Mariners present a good opportunity for Delcarmen to rebuild his value, just as was the case for Aardsma, who flourished as a closer after the Sox traded him to the M’s following the 2008 season. The Mariners’ park is one of the best in the game for pitchers and the AL West as a whole tends to see fewer stacked lineups than the AL East (where Delcarmen made his home with the Sox from the time the Hyde Park native was selected in the second round of the 2000 draft until being traded to the Rockies this past Aug. 31). So, if Delcarmen can regain his effectiveness, he has a chance to not only re-establish himself as a late-innings reliever, but also to position himself well for salary arbitration (for which Delcarmen would be eligible as a player with 5+ years of service time after the 2011 season), which is driven by traditional stats such as record, saves, ERA and strikeouts, and doesn’t account for park factors.

Seattle represents an opportunity for the longtime Red Sox pitcher to get his career back on the path that seemed so promising just a couple of seasons ago. Now, it will be up to Delcarmen to take advantage of the situation with his performance on the mound.

Delcarmen flies to join the Mariners in spring training this weekend for a new beginning that he hopes will bring back some familiar results.

Former Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen signed a minor league deal with the Mariners that included an invitation to spring training, the Mariners announced. Delcarmen, 29, is coming off a season in which he struggled with the Sox and then, following an Aug. 31 trade to the Rockies, in Colorado. He had a 4.99 ERA with a career-low 6.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a career-high 5.5 walks per nine innings in 57 appearances.

However, Delcarmen is just a couple years removed from having been one of the more effective middle relievers in the American League. In 2007-08, he had a 2.81 ERA for the Sox with 8.6 punchouts per nine innings.

The Hyde Park native spent more than 10 years in the Red Sox system after being drafted by his hometown club in the second round of the 2000 draft. While he emerged as an important setup man for the Sox in recent years, he struggled with his mechanics last year, with such struggles responsible in the eyes of the team for him diminished velocity (his fastball, which had averaged 95.5 mph in 2008, according to Fangraphs.com, fell to 93.9 mph in 2009 and 93.1 mph in 2010) and command. His role in the Sox bullpen, in turn, diminished, leading the Sox to shipp him to Colorado last Aug. 31 in exchange for minor league pitcher Chris Balcom-Miller. Delcarmen has a career 11-8 record and 3.97 ERA.

For more Red Sox news, visit weei.com/redsox.

According to a baseball source, the Tampa Bay Rays are one of “several teams” to express interest in former Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen, who became a free agent in December when the Colorado Rockies elected not to tender the right-hander a contract.

Delcarmen, who had emerged as a key reliever for the Sox in 2007 and 2008, struggled with injuries in 2009 and 2010 while watching his numbers get worse across the board. He posted a 4.99 ERA in 2010 (4.70 with the Red Sox, 6.48 with Colorado after being traded to the Rockies on Aug. 31 for Single-A starter Chris Balcom-Miller), and both his strikeout rate (6.5 per nine innings) and walk rate (5.5 per nine) were the worst of his career.

That said, he is young (28), and not far removed from being one of the top relievers in the AL East. In 2007-08, he had a 2.81 ERA in 117 appearances. The Sox believed that Delcarmen’s arm strength remained fine, and that his struggles in 2010 — which began in spring training — were due to a known mechanical issue.

“When he was good, he had the ability to get left and right-handers out, which was huge. It gives you that guy, kind of like an Oki, when he’s going good, who really makes your bullpen a little deeper. … He’s a local kid, who, he had times when he had some runs when he was pretty good. And there were some times when it didn’t go as planned. It’s not always perfect,” Sox manager Terry Francona said when Delcarmen was dealt. “When he would leave the rubber too quick, there were stretches where he just couldn’t get his arm to catch up on time. And he knew itbut he couldn’t make the adjustment during his outing. John Farrell would go out to the mound, and he’d say, ‘Yeah I know’. When everything was working on time, it worked good. But when it wasn’t, it took him a little while to make the adjustment.”

Delcarmen, who would not be eligible for free agency until after the 2012 season by the team that signs him, is now looking for “the right fit,” according to the source.

News of Tampa Bay’s interest first surfaced in a report by the St. Petersburg Times.

The Rockies had long liked Manny Delcarmen, and the idea of acquiring the reliever from the Red Sox had long been of interest. But when they finally did acquire the right-hander, grabbing him in exchange for Single-A right-hander Chris Balcom-Miller on Aug. 31, the results proved disappointing.

Acquired to solidify the Colorado bullpen in the pennant stretch, Delcarmen instead contributed to its struggles. After posting a 4.70 ERA for the Sox while walking nearly as many (28) as he struck out (32), the right-hander had a 6.48 ERA in nine appearances for the Rockies while permitting nearly two base runners per inning.

That, in turn, reportedly has the Rockies ready to part ways with the right-hander. According to Troy Renck of the Denver Post (via twitter), the Rockies are expected to decline to tender Manny Delcarmen an offer of salary arbitration for the 2011 season. If non-tendered, Delcarmen would become a free agent, able to negotiate with any team.

Renck described Delcarmen as an “interesting experiment that didn’t work out” for the Rockies. In parts of six big league seasons, Delcarmen has a 3.97 ERA and 7.7 strikeouts per nine innings. The Sox took him in the second round of the 2000 draft.

While the Rockies appear ready to walk away from Delcarmen, the Sox have received positive initial returns from Balcom-Miller. The right-hander was 7-7 with a 3.30 ERA in the Single-A South Atlantic League this year, and in two pro seasons, he has a 2.73 ERA and a ridiculous 180-to-29 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Jerry Remy

NESN Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning and said he doesn’t believe the Sox have given up on the season yet.

“Have they turned the page yet toward next year? No, they haven’t done that yet,” Remy said. “And the reason I say that is because there’s too many guys on this team that have a lot to play for. They’ve got young guys that are trying to prove they’re going to belong here at the beginning of next year, guys like [Ryan] Kalish. And they’ve got veteran guys who are playing for contracts. [Adrian] Beltre, [Victor] Martinez, [David] Ortiz — all these guys are playing for contracts.”

Remy was also asked his opinion of Theo Epstein and the job he’s done this season.

Below are the highlights of the conversation. To hear the interview, visit the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

Do you think after last night’s loss, we’re looking at this team turning the page to next year?

Well, it’s pretty obvious after the weekend that when you could have been possibly 2½ games out, you end up seven games back. It’s going to be an incredible battle from here on out and I don’t know whether they have the weapons to be able to do that. It was frustrating because you had chances to win every one of those games down in Tampa and you’re looking at a 2½-game spread, which makes things exciting. All of a sudden you come to Baltimore, you get a day off, you go back and you’re seven games out and you’re looking up at two very, very good teams.

Have they turned the page yet toward next year? No, they haven’t done that yet. And the reason I say that is because there’s too many guys on this team that have a lot to play for. They’ve got young guys that are trying to prove they’re going to belong here at the beginning of next year, guys like [Ryan] Kalish. And they’ve got veteran guys who are playing for contracts. [Adrian] Beltre, [Victor] Martinez, [David] Ortiz — all these guys are playing for contracts. So, they’re going to continue to play and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Read the rest of this entry »

BALTIMORE — It’s not a white flag, the Red Sox insist.

Yes, the Red Sox have parted with a member of their big league club on the Aug. 31 deadline for waiver trades, and yes, they got a 21-year-old, Single-A prospect in return. The deal that came down featured veteran reliever Manny Delcarmen heading to the Rockies in exchange for right-hander Chris Balcom-Miller, a player who is years away from pitching at the big league level.

“This is not one of those moves that helps us tomorrow at the big league level,” Sox manager Terry Francona said of Balcom-Miller, “but we think down the road it could be great.”

That said, GM Theo Epstein said this deal — made with the Sox seven games behind both the Rays and Yankees in both the AL East and wild card races — was not to be confused with the sign of surrender that was hoisted four years earlier, when the Sox (trailing in the division by eight games, and 6 1/2 games back in the wild card) traded David Wells to the Padres for George Kottaras.

The difference, Epstein suggested, is that whereas Wells was a key member of the rotation at the time of being dealt, Delcarmen had become “a diminishing asset,” someone whom the Sox were no longer using in the highest-leverage relief situations. Once he had been supplanted by Felix Doubront on the bullpen depth chart, the Sox made the decision — following his having been claimed off waivers by the Rockies — that they were willing to part with the former first-rounder, who had spent his career in the organization for which he’d rooted while growing up in Hyde Park.

“[The Wells trade] was a bright line, an example where our hopes for contention that season had completely dissipated based on the injuries and the talent we had left on the roster, whereas I think this club is capable of winning games,” explained Epstein. “Let’s be honest: We need to get really hot in order to make this thing interesting. Really hot. Hotter than we’ve gotten at any point in the year. We haven’t done that yet. It doesn’t mean we can’t do that. I don’t think moving what had become for us a lower-leverage reliever is going to make the difference one way or the other in that.”

Delcarmen had entered the year as a pitcher whom the Sox anticipated using in key late-inning situations. Indeed, over the early stretches of the season, he was one of the team’s most effective pitchers. But he endured mechanical inconsistencies that manager Terry Francona said made it difficult to know whether he was going to be a dominant reliever or one who was unable to retire opponents.

That, in turn, led to different usage patterns for the right-hander, who was 3-2 with a 4.70 ERA this year, a mark that included a 9.00 ERA since June 3.

“Manny wasn’t necessarily pitching in the highest leverage situations any more. We had a couple guys who had passed him on the depth chart, most recently Doubront,” said Epstein. We ran Manny through waivers, which we do as a matter of routine with all our players. “The Rockies were motivated to acquire him. We ended up getting a prospect we liked. Manny gets a change of scenery. It’s not a reflection of any grander plan than that.

“We’re constantly looking for guys we can lean on in high leverage situations,” Epstein continued. “The way the season evolved, at this point in time, Manny wasn’t one of those guys, so we thought it worthwhile to get an asset that can really help is in the future for what was now becoming a diminishing asset for us.

“Manny has been a pleasure to have around, a hometown kid originally drafted by the Red Sox who’s helped us win a lot of games over the years. We certainly wish him well and will be watching him pitch in the National League now.” Read the rest of this entry »