By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff

With Stephen Drew in the fold pending a physical and Xander Bogaerts so highly touted, Jose Iglesias can’t be too pleased about his future with the Red Sox.

While Iglesias is spending the offseason working with Dustin Pedroia, he no longer projects as Boston’s starting shortstop, not with Drew earning a hefty $9.5 million paycheck this season.

Once again, the Red Sox picked up an underperforming player from the previous season joining Mike Napoili and Shane Victorino in that category, but paid him handsomely to rebound.

Drew was once a very productive offensive player but a broken ankle and the recovery from that slowed him last season when the long-time Diamondback was traded to the Oakland A’s. The A's did try to retain him, but not at that price.

Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, is basically giving the Red Sox an Adrian Beltre-type pillow deal so Drew can re-establish his value. The lefthanded hitter does give the Red Sox some balance in what had become a top-heavy righthanded lineup.

Drew hit 21 homers in 2008 for the D-Backs so he does have some power.

With the signing, the Red Sox will have paid the Drew family $80 million before the year is over.

As for Napoli, a report by Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated indicates the Sox are trying to reduce the deal from three to two years to protect against the deterioration of a physical situation (believe to be a hip). So far, no resolution. The Red Sox have kept communication with Nick Swisher and Adam LaRoche should the deal fall through.