"John Henry came to me in tears," Mantei said Tuesday, adding that he cried, too.
Henry, in an e-mail, explained: "After becoming an owner, Matt was the first player I really knew who was traded. Two weeks later, Livan Hernandez was traded. I hated to see them go. I knew Dave Dombrowski knew exactly what he was doing and that there was no [way] I was going to oppose any trade he made. ". . . I was like a fan, but one who also knew these men personally. Losing Mark Kotsay in 2001 was tough. Leaving the individual men on the team we had put together at the end of 2001 was the toughest part of the transition to Boston."
Nearly six years later, Mantei and Henry will be reunited when Henry arrives at Red Sox spring training next week. Mantei, who signed a one-year deal with the club for a guaranteed $750,000, is already training at City of Palms Park alongside Wade Miller and Trot Nixon.
Mantei, like Miller, was plucked from the low-risk, high-reward aisle when general manager Theo Epstein went shopping for discount arms this winter. The 31-year-old Mantei made $7 million last season in Arizona but pitched only 10 2/3 innings (0-3, 11.81 ERA). His season came to a premature end in late June when he underwent shoulder surgery to repair a clavicular bone spur that had been cutting into his labrum.
"The surgery was something I should have done after '03," said Mantei, who could net $2.5 million this season if he meets health and performance standards. "I had 29 saves and a low 2 [actually 2.62] ERA [in 2003]. Last year I went out, I couldn't finish a fastball, I couldn't finish a slider. Everything was up in the zone.
"It probably wasn't a good idea to wait to have surgery in my free agent year, but I thought I'd be all right. I was still throwing upper 90s, it was just all belt high or above. The bone was just banging. It was killing me. I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to move my arm."
Mantei's four-year, $22 million contract with Arizona expired at the end of last season, and he knew he wanted to play for the Sox the moment Epstein called. When Mantei visited Boston in early December, the plan was to undergo a physical and meet with a fleet of Sox executives, including manager Terry Francona.
