After temporary salvation, Schilling sounds off

He just couldn’t help himself.

Curt Schilling was out of the spotlight. His team was finding a way to win for two straight days, pushing across enough runs against the woeful Tampa Bay Devil Rays to cruise after surviving a four-game series against the AL West leading Los Angeles Angels. Of course, Schilling was part of that earlier survival, winning his start while teammate and prospective Cy Young candidate Josh Beckett lost his.

Curt Schilling was doing a good job of staying in the background … then someone asked him a question again. Does anyone have some duct tape to shut the guy up?

In short, there was no need to bring attention to himself. But like he has so many times, Schilling couldn’t help himself.

Instead, here’s what Schilling said on his weekly radio appearance on WEEI, via the Globe’s Gordon Edes:

“They asked me about it,” Schilling said of his appearance on WEEI. “It’s not a big deal.

“It’s one of those situations you’d certainly have to look at. Knowing that I’m probably going to spend one more year playing, if circumstances happen and things happen and they made some moves that were positive, I’d love nothing more than to finish my career working on a pitching staff where I know that there are young guys that are going to be positively impacted by me being around [after] I was gone. I enjoy that. I love working and talking and being around young pitchers.”

Schilling also mentioned that he used to have a home in the area and would welcome a return.

“I love Tampa, I love the area, I love everything about it,” he said. “I loved living down there.”

How’s that for a wild turn of events? Schilling is willing to go pitch for Tampa, a place which clearly could use him? When can Tampa not use an ace starter, right? The answer to that question, of course, is never.

But there’s a bigger question here: why did Schilling have to say anything at all. He didn’t, and the only reason he did was in the interest of selfish campaigning for a future job, likely all to give himself more leverage in negotiations with the Sox. Just think about what Schill was really saying in that quote: 1) I’m willing to go play for a team that’s not a contender, so forget about the nonsense that I won’t jump for a rich payday on a losing team, 2) I’m willing to go pitch for another team in the division, 3) I’m not at all wedded to the idea of staying with the Sox at any lowball cost.

Of course, item No. 3 could be a total smokescreen, and it’s entirely possible that Schilling staged this whole farce thinking that Theo Epstein will blush and then be more likely to sit down with him sooner rather than later. Everyone knows Schilling would love nothing more than to end in a Red Sox uniform. To go out a winner on a winning team. To pad his stats in Boston to make a Cooperstown case and then put on a hat with a B at induction ceremonies.

But look at the situation from Epstein’s perspective. Why would he need an aging Schilling again next year? Just check out the prospective starting rotation without him next spring: Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz. That quintet would be largely dependent on Wakefield not retiring, but it seems like the guy is going to pitch until he’s damn well 50 years old, so we’re not betting on him taking a leave of absence.

It’s likely that nest season’s Red Sox rotation will belong more to young hurlers like Jon Lester than it will an aging Schilling.

Instead of paying a whopping $12-14 mill for another year of Schilling, Epstein - ever the shrewd financial negotiator - could re-ink a swing man like Julian Tavarez that could start of work out of the pen, keeping a man ready to move into a starting roll at the first sign of injury. Kyle Snyder might work even better. Then there’s the additional pitching prospects quickly working their way through the ranks. Rookie Nick Hagadone looks sensational in A and could be ready for a Buchholz type appearance by the end of next season. And that’s not mentioning players like Justin Masterson, perhaps the quickest rising arm in the Sox system, or Daniel Bard, the former North Carolina star who may finally be getting himself on track.

So Epstein and the Sox don’t really need Schilling. Would he be a nice luxury? Absolutely. Is he a necessity? Not at all.

That just serves to make Schilling’s comments Tuesday, well, all the more self-serving. It’s frustrating to watch a guy who would be a team’s playoff ace, on a team that is all but certainly headed for October, campaign for a future job somewhere else. It has to be hard for his teammates to watch.

Then again, they’re more than used to this crap by now. Senator Schilling has spoken, and in doing so, he may have moved closer to switching party allegiance.

– Cameron Smith