Hoping that bringing in the lefty works out

The only risk is the $3.5 million the Sox are on the hook for - the remainder of his four-year, $43 million deal. The Sox agreed to Wagner’s condition to not pick up the $8 million option on his contract for 2010. But they held firm in retaining the right to offer him arbitration; if they offer it and Wagner declines, the Sox would receive two draft picks as compensation for him signing elsewhere. The Sox were willing to pick up the $1 million buyout on his 2010 contract.

Wagner, who will join the Sox tomorrow after going home for a couple of days, should come out as a Type A free agent, even though he has missed appreciable time on the disabled list after having Tommy John surgery. The complicated formula weighs the player’s success and time missed be cause of injury.

“We were going to try to make a move for a second lefty anyway,’’ Epstein said, “and when you can get someone of the quality of Billy Wagner, it’s nice.

“We already had a really good, deep bullpen. We weren’t looking to displace anyone. We certainly wanted to augment what we already had.

“Ownership deserves an awful lot of credit here. We added a couple of starting pitchers [Brad Penny, John Smoltz] who were due to make a lot of money. There have been some developments in recent days where there’ll be some savings. There’ll be bonuses that won’t get paid out, so instead of pocketing that money, they allowed us to pursue ways to improve the club and help us get into the postseason and World Series. So we were able to redirect those savings toward someone like Billy Wagner.’’

Getting to speak to Wagner directly in the last hours before the deadline was a key to getting the deal done, said Epstein. Permission to speak to a player has to come from the team holding the player’s contract. An important issue for Wagner in New York was needing to protect his elbow in a non-pennant-race situation.