(Wake's back. Timlin, not so much.)

The Sox have today announced that they'll exercise their 2009 option on veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Not much of a surprise here. Wake's relatively cheap at $4 million, and he's one of the more versatile pitchers they've got as he can pitch in the back end of the rotation or out of the 'pen in middle or long relief. He finished the 2008 season with a 10-11 record to go with a 4.13 ERA, 117 Ks, a 1.18 WHIP and 60 BB in 181 innings.

How people were clamoring for the Sox to move on from Wakefield and either let him sign elsewhere or have him graciously fade into the background is beyond me. Sure he's prone to the occasional four-home run game, and when he struggles he really struggles (SEE: May 11 at Minnesota, Sept. 6 at Texas, Sept. 17 at Tampa Bay), but this guy deserves to decide when his Red Sox career should come to an end more than any other player that's donned the jersey this decade based on what he's done for the organization and the city off the field up to this point alone. And for a guy that's pretty well north of 40 years of age (at least in terms of professional athletics), the stats are most definitely still there, especially in terms of innings pitched (5 years with 201.1-plus, and 12 with 159.1-plus).