02:49 PM EST on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

BOSTON -- On the mound, Pedro Martinez always seems to be a step ahead. He anticipates what a hitter might be looking for, how he might react, and pitches accordingly, sometimes forecasting not just the next pitch but the next at-bat several innings away.

But this winter, as he tries to gain leverage in his contract negotiations with the Red Sox, Martinez is a step behind.

He's playing the free agent game under the old rules, the ones that don't apply any more.

Like any other free agent, Martinez knows that his leverage grows from having other offers. And when one of those offers is from the New York Yankees, that's the best leverage of all.

But things have changed. The Red Sox' World Series championship, achieved after their stunning comeback over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, has changed the landscape, perhaps permanently.

The Red Sox aren't doing the chasing any more; that's the Yankees' role now. By all accounts, much of the Yankees' off-season plans are designed to counter the Red Sox. The Yankees want plenty of lefthanded pitching, both in the bullpen (Steve Kline, Eddie Guardado, Rheal Cormier) and in the rotation (Randy Johnson, Eric Milton, Barry Zito) to face David Ortiz, Trot Nixon and others in the Red Sox lineup.

To the victor goes the spoils. Instead of reacting, as they often have done, the Red Sox this time get to set the agenda.

But it's more than that. A new philosophy has been instilled in the Red Sox front office. No longer do the Red Sox quake in fear of the Yankees, desperately trying to match every move.

To their credit, the Sox now operate as their own entity. They make smart, prudent baseball decisions independent of the Yankees' machinations. No longer operating in the shadow of the Yanks, weighed down by a sense of inferiority, the Sox do what they think is right, not what they think is right in relation to what the Yankees are doing.

Martinez is the perfect example. Internally, the Red Sox have decided on Martinez' value, which they deem to be just under $26 million for two years, with incentives available and an option for a third year.

That the Yankees are rumored to ready to present Martinez with a three-year deal, or perhaps even a four-year pact, matters little to the Red Sox. They're not about to be coerced into a bidding war they can't win.

If the battle for Martinez is going to be determined by checkbook diplomacy, the Yankees can't be topped. When they wanted Jose Contreras, cost be damned, they got him. In a roundabout way, that's how they wound up with Alex Rodriguez, too. They were willing to absorb more of A-Rod's remaining money than were the Sox.

It's a fact of life for the Red Sox that they can reasonably expect to outspend every single major league team except one -- the one which serves as their biggest rival. The Yankees have more revenues and resources than do the Sox, a fact that neither team would reasonably argue.

But if Martinez is convinced that by getting the Yanks to agree to a three-year guarantee is going to lead to getting the same offer from the Red Sox, he's mistaken.

When the bidding got too rich for Contreras, the Red Sox bowed out. When the stakes were too high to land Rodriguez, they did it again, much to the consternation of their fan base. And, should it come to that, they'll do it again with Martinez.

For Theo Epstein and the rest of the Red Sox' Baseball Operations department, players have specific value. That value makes no room for sentiment, popularity or any other intangibles.

Martinez is worth X. If the Yankees choose to give him more than that, the thinking goes, that's their problem. The Red Sox aren't about to lured into a bad deal merely to keep him out of pinstripes.

If the Sox were about to get all gushy about their recent championship, they could offer Derek Lowe -- only their best starter in the postseason -- a deal sure to keep him in Boston. But they haven't, and they won't.

In the past, the mere suggestion that a former Red Sox star -- be it Luis Tiant, Wade Boggs, or Roger Clemens -- might end up in the Bronx would make the Boston front office apoplectic.

But those were the old rules. This edition of the Red Sox operates on its own rules, and doesn't see the need to bend them when the Yankees get involved.

That's a point that Martinez -- intuitive and insightful as he may otherwise be -- hasn't yet grasped.