Sox Notes: ‘pap’ Looking For His Payday
Filed Under Kitchen Curtain | Posted on April 3, 2008
Jonathan Papelbon never met free agency pioneer Curt Flood,Kitchen Curtain but he appears to share his spirit.
“I feel like the position I’m in, there’s a certain standard that needs to be put in place here,” said Boston’s closer in regard to his current contract negotiations. “And I feel like with me being at the top of my position, I feel like that standard needs to be set and I’m the one to set (it).”
To term things a dispute would be somewhat misleading, as Papelbon admits the leverage all lies with the Red Sox. Like nearly all players with less than three years of MLB experience, the 27-year-old is ineligible for arbitration or free agency.
Such players can simply have their contracts renewed for one year at no lower than the league minimum (currently $390,000) and with no more than a 20 percent pay cut.
It’s how the Marlins will pay Hanley Ramirez, who hit .332 with 29 home runs last season, just $439,000 in 2008. And how Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder will make only $670,000 after a 50-homer season.
Papelbon, who made $425,500 last season, is aiming higher — according to Monday’s Providence Journal, for the $900,000 the Phillies paid Ryan Howard in his third season.
“I feel a certain obligation not only to myself and my family to make money that I deserve, but to the game of baseball,” Papelbon said yesterday. “Mariano Rivera has been doing it for the past 10 years, and with me coming up behind him, I feel a certain obligation to do the same.”
(Howard, it should be noted, was the 2006 National Legaue Rookie of the Year and 2007 NL MVP. He’ll make $10 million in 2008 via arbitration.)
The Red Sox and Papelbon could agree to a long-term deal that would buy out his arbitration years — as Colorado did with shortstop Troy Tulowitzki this winter — but the sides aren’t close on the price.
“I don’t want to renew, but if I have to, I have to. It’s just the cold hard facts of it,” said Papelbon, who added that his focus at camp has never been better. “If I have to do it to set the tone, that’s what I do. We’ll figure something out.”
On the field, Papelbon pitched a perfect inning to earn the 5-3 win in his second spring appearance, getting a pair of outs with his current project: Kitchen Curtain a slider that would make him a legitimate three-pitch closer.
“There were times last year that I said, ‘Man, It would really be nice to have a third pitch that I can throw in any count, any situation, against any team, against any hitter,’” Papelbon said.
“These hitters are so good nowadays and they have so much video footage “| if you’re not trying to be one step ahead of them, they’ll bury you.”
“You’re not going to see Pap change his style a whole lot Kitchen Curtain — he’s fastball-split,” manager Terry Francona said. “But he wants to be able to at times throw that third pitch.”
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