A nice changeup

Wells tells Epstein that he now wants to stay with the Red Sox

March 06, 2006|Chris Snow, Globe Staff

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- This past November, while the Red Sox worked to honor David Wells's request to be shipped to his hometown Padres, Mick Jagger played at San Diego's home park and invoked Wells's wish, telling the 44,000 in attendance: ''I told management you'd be careful with the sacred dirt of Petco Park, or else David Wells may never return."

Now, approximately five months after Wells made his request, wishing to be closer to his family and leave behind the suffocating Boston fandom, the 42-year-old has reconsidered. In a rather simplistic, vintage Wells moment, the lefthander approached general manager Theo Epstein Saturday morning at City of Palms Park.

Wells: ''You busy?"

Epstein: ''As a matter of fact I'm not."

Wells: ''Listen, plan on me going north, dude. I want to stay. I think it will be fine."

Added Wells, ''And that was that."

So, he was asked, ''Who had the biggest role in you staying?"

The question was posed yesterday evening by Josh Beckett, who parted the media sea washing over Wells to pop the question. When he ultimately answered, Wells cited the captain, Jason Varitek.

''Just the way 'Tek looked at me," Wells said. ''He said, 'We need to talk.' We never really got a chance to talk. Knowing 'Tek, I kind of had an idea what was going through his mind. As he walked away the other day [to go to the World Baseball Classic] he asked me, 'Do you want to stay?'

''He just gave me that look. It was something, like, wow. There was something behind that look. That vibe I got was deep, without even talking to him. Something heavy."

His other teammates, too, were wearing him out.

''Having to fight City Hall, you get tired of it," he said. ''If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?"

Beckett, apparently, was the mayor of City Hall.

''That [expletive] over there," Wells said, ''bugging the [expletive] out of me every day."

Apparently, once Wells showed up to camp, looked around at a team stocked with starting pitchers, deeper in the bullpen, and better defensively, he began to come around.

''It frankly doesn't surprise me," manager Terry Francona said. ''I think there's an atmosphere around Boston. In the winter, you get here, you realize you have a chance to win, a good organization. We're going to play a lot of playoff games before the playoffs. I think David understands that."

Said Wells: ''There's so much depth it's ridiculous. Live arms. I want to go out on top. I felt this is the best opportunity I have to go out on top. This is a hell of a team."

Still, there remains the issue of his contract. He's due $2.5 million this season, with the chance to tack on $5 million more in bonuses ($200,000 per start for starts 11-20 and $300,000 per start for starts 21-30). Wells claimed he and Epstein discussed making the bonuses more attainable.