Red Sox Notebook: Arbitration Nearing

First baseman Kevin Youkilis entered January as the highest profile arbitration-eligible player that the Sox management team must deal with before the start of spring training. Youkilis emerged as a Gold Glove first baseman and potential future All-Star in his second season as a regular at first base.

Arbitration figures must be exchanged between the team and the player's representation between Jan. 5 and 15, and Major League Baseball announces the figures three days later. No Sox player has ever gone to arbitration during Theo Epstein's tenure as general manager.

—Manager Terry Francona and the Sox front office have not yet begun discussions on a contract extension, but both sides are expected to sit down and hammer out a deal before the beginning of spring training. Francona should receive a sizable raise from his current $1.785 million salary after winning two World Series titles in the last four seasons. An extension of some kind is nearly a foregone conclusion because neither Francona nor the Sox want to see the manager head into next season in the final year of his current contract.

—LF Manny Ramirez has moved to Arizona for several months this winter, according to ESPN reporter Peter Gammons, and is working out like a fiend at the renowned API facility in Tempe. Ramirez, who routinely works out in Florida during the offseason, will turn 36 during the 2008 season and is entering the final guaranteed season of the $160 million deal he signed with the Sox in 2000. The Sox hold club options on Ramirez starting in 2009.

—OF Bobby Kielty is still on the free agent market, though the switch-hitting outfielder has expressed an interest in returning to the Sox next season as a reserve outfielder under the right set of circumstances. According to the Boston Herald, Kielty also has toyed with the idea of exclusively hitting right-handed next season after enjoying great success against lefty pitchers over the last few seasons.

—3B Mike Lowell has been selected as the winner of the 2007 Tommy McCarthy Good Guy Award by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The reigning World Series MVP will receive that award as well as the Thomas A. Yawkey Award, given to the team's Most Valuable Player, at the Boston Baseball Writers Dinner on Jan. 17.


BY THE NUMBERS: 382—The number of home runs hit by Sox outfielder Jim Rice during his 16-year career, which was tops among AL hitters during that span. Rice again fell short of earning induction into the Hall of Fame when balloting was released Tuesday, but he received 72.2 percent of the vote—by far his largest share ever and just shy of the 75 percent necessary for enshrinement. He’ll be on the ballot for the 15th and final time next year.


QUOTE TO NOTE: "Our reports on Eric in Texas were very good. Obviously, he didn't fare as well in Boston out of his normal role, but his stuff was still good."—Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin after signing Eric Gagne to a one-year, $10 million contract after Gagne put up a 6.75 ERA in 20 games for the Sox last summer.