FORT MYERS, Fla. - The jig might have to go. Too many people back home, in Jacksonville and Mississippi, were giving him grief for a dance that just might have passed cult status. He considered break-dancing, though David Ortiz's demonstration left much to be desired.
Jonathan Papelbon will put that aside for now, his focus on heading into a season with a healthy shoulder, without questions about his role, and with the possibility the Red Sox could be his home for a long time.
His agents, the Levinsons, have been talking to the Red Sox about a multiyear deal for the closer.
"We're still going back and forth," Papelbon said yesterday. "We'll see."
General manager Theo Epstein confirmed the sides had conversations about a contract. But Papelbon said he isn't afraid to go year to year through arbitration. "Now I feel I can stay healthy," he said.
Papelbon will stick with a program similar to last year's. He started at the end of last season with shoulder strengthening and will continue into the regular season with a well-considered workload. Like last season, he will not always be available to pitch. Some of those innings will go to Hideki Okajima or Manny Delcarmen.
But all of that contributes to Papelbon's sense of well-being as he heads into 2008. He has confidence in his teammates to fill in. He has confidence in his shoulder. And, most important, he comprehends exactly what he's being asked to do.
"In fact, I talked to [pitching coach] John [Farrell] a lot this offseason about my usage and my program and everything else," Papelbon said. "I think last year was a key year for me to understand my body, understand my arm, and understand my usage. I think now that I can understand that it's just a matter of tweaking little things here, tweaking little things there, and just staying with the program and moving forward."
When Papelbon arrived at spring training last season, he was asked to change everything. From a stellar closer, he was asked to be a starter. That required a change in mentality, in schedule, in who he was as a pitcher, something that did not make him comfortable. So, before the Red Sox headed back to Boston, Papelbon was again the closer.
Yet he learned from that experience, most notably that it prepared him well for the regular season, though he was "gassed" at the end of the World Series. So he might do it again, minus that starting/relieving controversy, of course.
"We're going to sit down and talk about my approach to spring training," Papelbon said. "Last spring training I kind of took a starter's approach, building up arm strength and things like that. I think for the first few weeks I'll kind of be more on a starter's throwing program, so to speak. Then go back to pitching every day toward the end of spring training. It worked last year, so why not try it again this year?"
Most of all, Papelbon retained that aforementioned confidence. Sitting on the benches outside the main building at the player development complex, Papelbon lounged in a T-shirt and sweat pants, stubble lining his cheeks. He said he - and his team - would be just as hungry for a title this season as they were last season, when they won it all. Not only is he looking forward to the season, he holds his team's status as an utter certainty.
Save for a freak incident - or injuries - Papelbon sees a similar ending this season to what the Sox experienced last year.
"If we're not the team to beat, I'd like to know who is," Papelbon said. "Our No. 1 thing is to stay healthy. If we do that, I don't know who can really compete with us. From a top-to-bottom scale, it's a good situation to be in, that's for sure."
Gordon Edes of the Globe staff contributed to this report; Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
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