Enjoy It While It Lasts

Today's the last day for teams to offer arbitration to their free agents. If a team offers arbitration and the player leaves, the team gets a first-round draft pick. If they offer arbitration and the player takes it, they are required to accept the salary the arbitrator chooses, and recently these have been high.

The Red Sox surprised many by offering arbitration to Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe and Orlando Cabrera Those four players together could get a lot of money from arbitrators, and the Sox have said they don't want their budget to go up much next year. On top of that they will still have to replace some of the free-agent players they didn't offer arbitration, like Gabe Kapler (who's going to Japan), Pokey Reese and Scott Williamson. Theo Epstein made all the right moves from Nomah's trade on, but now the Sox will find out how hard it is to win again, and how much more it costs.

In April, the Sox travel to the Bronx for Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. Should be a good season. The sun may already be setting on the Red Sox Nation.

The great New Yorker writer Roger Angell, Sox and Mets fan, sums up the season in his annual column here.