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Boston nearing deals with Smoltz, Baldelli

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The Red Sox are on the verge of landing themselves a pair of injured players with high upside. Buster Olney reports that John Smoltz, a 20-year veteran of the Braves, will jump leagues and cities. He and the Red Sox are nearing a deal on a one-year, $5.5-million contract. Smoltz will be playing his age 42 season in 2009, and he’s coming off surgery. The Sox don’t expect him back until the end of May, and I wonder how he’ll handle the AL for the first time in his career. Boston, however, can well afford the risk.

Meanwhile, MLBTR directs us to various reports on an impending deal between Rocco Baldelli and the Red Sox. When healthy, Badelli ranks up there with the game’s top outfielders, but he has played just 155 games since the end of 2004. Baldelli received some good news earlier this winter when his mitochondrial disease was revealed to be a misdiagnosis, but he’s not out of the injury woods yet. Again, this is a nice potential low-risk, high-reward signing, but Baldelli shouldn’t be considered more than a role player until he can be healthy for long stretches at a time.

Times’ share of Red Sox for sale

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As The New York Times Co. continues to see its newspaper holdings shed money, the company is looking to move one of its profitable ventures. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Times Co. wants to sell its 17.5 percent stake in the Red Sox for $300 million. While Barclays Capital believes this share to be worth about $166 million, The Times is shooting for the stars in a bad economy. If they are successful in getting their asking price, the Red Sox as a whole would be worth around $1.7 billion. Fundraiser, anyone?

On the Red Sox’s final trip to Yankee Stadium

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Jack Curry, on The Times’ Bats blog, picks up a story about Tim Wakefield and his locker in the visiting clubhouse at the Yankee Stadium. Lou Cucuzza, the Yankees clubhouse manager, is giving Wakefield the 49 plaque that has, for the last 14 years, indicated the Red Sox’s knuckleballer’s spot in the room. Wakefield, who served up on the more famous home runs in recent Yankee Stadium history, speaks wistfully of Yankee Stadium, and this piece is just another hint that the crazy fans, by and large, take this rivalry way more seriously than the players.

The A-Rod/Hansen incident, explained

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When Craig Hansen hit Alex Rodriguez with a fastball yesterday, Fenway Park classlessly erupted in howls. It was retribution for Joba Chamberlain’s not hitting Youkilis, and my dad, watching at a bar in the Berkshires, said that a Red Sox fan near him hoped that A-Rod was hurt. Gotta love Red Sox fans. Anyway, Jack Curry checked in on this escalating situation, and I have a sinking feeling this whole ridiculous thing isn’t over yet.

In which Theo Epstein has to eat his words

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A little over two weeks ago, Theo Epstein criticized Mike Mussina over his complaints — from 2004 — about the Yankees’ ill-fated trip to Japan to opening the regular season. At the time, Yankee fans were a little surprised about Theo’s seeming breach of protocol. A GM’s criticizing another team’s player for comments about an unrelated incident are exceedingly rare in sports.

Today, the shoe is squarely on the other foot, and I have to wonder if this isn’t some sort of karmic retribution. The Red Sox, you see, now view their upcoming trip to Japan as a huge inconvenience. Josh Beckett, their ace, is out indefinitely with back problems and will miss the trip. Daisuke Matsuzaka’s wife is expecting, and he may miss the trip as well. The trip — two 18-hour plane rides in four days plus two baseball games that actually count — disrupts the rhythm of Spring Training and generally messes with athletes used to routine.

Publicly, in the Boston Herald, the Red Sox are saying that they’re excited to go. They say they could sit back and complain, but they’re just going to tough it out instead. Of course, reading between the lines, complaining is exactly what they’re doing, and I don’t blame them. In this case, I completely sympathize with the players.

As for Mr. Epstein, I think he should take this one as a lesson. Internally, I’m sure there will be a lot of Boston-based grumblings about this trip both before and after. Mussina just happened to share his with the world. For that, he does not deserve the criticism he received. Enjoy your flights, Theo. I hear crossing the international date line twice in 96 hours does wonders to the body.