Jonathan Papelbon: Glad He Signed, but Now What?

As an avid Red Sox fan living in Boston in 2006, I was fortunate enough to attend many games at Fenway Park during that somewhat unremarkable year, caught between the fading glory of the 2004 World Series win and the dominance of the 2007 Championship team that nearly led the AL East wire to wire.

My friends and I would almost always indulge ourselves before games at the myriad of sports bars surrounding the park, as Fenway Park and the surrounding area have one of the great pre-game atmospheres in baseball. 

Of course, being in our mid-20s at the time, we would often carry on during the game as well, enjoying ourselves and oftentimes the similar company that surrounded us in the stands.

As a result of this, many of us would engage in drunken souvenir shopping from time to time (pre-and post-game), a favorite revenue stream of franchises the world over. Get fans plastered off $8 beers in the park, and those same fans will likely spend some more money at the team shop—a winning combination.

During one of my shopping trips after a game that season, I purchased a Jonathan Papelbon T-shirt jersey. Looking back on this purchase, I ask myself, why him?

Obviously, I could simply chalk it up to being half in the bag that night or his 0.92 ERA that season. However, I cannot remember a time where I particularly liked him, besides him being one of the top closers in baseball at the time.

Sure, I had some appreciation for his antics, being somewhat younger and more immature myself. But in the years since, I have actually come to dislike him somewhat, due to his slight decline in performance and increasingly bad attitude. At least in 2006, he was absolutely devastating on opposing hitters.

Papelbon has certainly had his share of memorable performances while in Boston, and his arrival was much needed after the painful “closer by committee" years and the somewhat loathsome Keith Foulke.

Last year, aside from some ups and downs, Papelbon had another stellar year—on paper. His performances were occasionally tightrope walks, as his control faltered like at no other point in his relatively young career.

He seemed to lose confidence in his terrific splitter and slurve, oftentimes pumping the zone with rising fastballs for an inning. AL hitters seemed to catch on a bit in 2009, as Papelbon saw his WHIP rise by 195 points.

He has made no secret of his need to go to the highest bidder, and that bidder may not be the Red Sox. So, while Red Sox Nation is happy he’s been re-signed for 2010, especially without the need for a possibly ugly arbitration battle, are we really going to be all that upset when he’s gone?

So long as we don’t have to hear the words “closer by committee” again, we might not be.