General manager Theo Epstein's clock is ticking, as the Red Sox have less than five days to make up their mind about lefty Alan Embree.
The veteran southpaw, on a Triple-A assignment in Pawtucket where he's hoping to find some spunk left in his fastball, has given Esptein an ultimatum: either call him up or he's leaving. He joined the Sox in spring training, accepting a minor-league
assignment with an April 15 deadline, but because he
wasn't ready by the 15th, he and the team agreed to extend the deadline
to this Friday, April 30.
"If something hasn't happened by the 30th, I think they know that I'm not going to consider staying. So it's pretty much cut-and-dried. If I don't hear anything, I get on a plane and head home until I have a new job," Embree told Projo.com.
According to Embree's PawSox skipper Torey Lovullo, the 40-year-old reliever appears ready to help out the Red Sox.
"Every time I look at him, there's big improvements," said Lovullo. "Past couple outings, he's had big league stuff. He's got power stuff — here's a 40-year-old man throwing in the low to mid 90s. You don't' see that. He's a special guy, and he's working hard to get back to the big leagues."
Embree has got his ERA down to 3.68 and feels as though he is ready to contribute to a Sox pen that currently features lefties Hideki Okajima (2-1, 4.70 ERA) and Scott Schoenweis (0-0, 2.89 ERA).
"I feel like I'm ready, I feel like I can help the team, but ultimately that's not my decision. I can respect that. I'm a player, they're in charge. The way I look at it is that they either take me, or I go somewhere else, or I go home. At this point in my career, I'm pretty comfortable with it," Embree said.
