Updated Dec 31, 2010 4:18 PM ET

The Boston Red Sox have reached a one-year agreement with left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima, according to a source. 

The deal is pending a physical.

Okajima was non-tendered by the Red Sox at the Dec. 2 deadline, making him a free agent for the first time in his major league career.

Okajima, who’s been with the Red Sox since he came up in 2007, was a key piece of Boston’s bullpen in his first three seasons, but his ERA ballooned last season to 4.50.

Okajima earned $2.75 million in 2010.

For a while, it looked like 2010 was going to be Hideki Okajima‘s last season in Boston. However, it seems the reliever is heading back to the Red Sox’ bullpen.

According to the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, the Red Sox are closing in on a one-year deal with Okajima to keep him in a Sox uniform for the fifth consecutive season.

Okajima was nontendered in early December, but general manager Theo Epstein maintained interest in re-signing the left-hander. Okie will compete with fellow lefties Rich Hill, Lenny DiNardo, Andrew Miller and Felix Doubront in the bullpen.

The contract is likely worth less than $3.5 million, reports NBCSports.com, which is the approximate amount he would have commanded if he had gone through arbitration.

While he posted a solid ERA through his first three years with Boston, Okajima dropped off in 2010. He finished the season with a 4.50 ERA in 46 innings of work.

According to NESN’s Tom Caron, Okajima had interest from seven other teams in the league, including three teams in the AL East. Okajima, however, wanted to return to the Red Sox.

About the Author

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

The pieces have been falling neatly into place for the Red Sox this offseason.

But no matter how diligent GM Theo Epstein is, no matter how much owner John Henry is willing to spend, the pieces may never fall neatly into place as the Red Sox work to restock their bullpen for the 2011 season.

The fact of the matter is that signing middle relievers, no matter how terrific or how poor their track record has been in the past, is little more than a crapshoot in baseball. By nature, middle relievers are lights-out one summer and knocked out the next. It’s rare for any of them to string together two or three or more consistent seasons in a row.

There’s a logical reason for that. Think about it: These journeymen relievers are generally only the eighth-, ninth-, or 10th-best pitchers on your staff, so how consistent can you reasonably expect them to be?

If they were better than that, more consistent than that, they wouldn’t be middle relievers. They’d be starters, closers, or eighth-inning set-up men.

That’s why it’s rare to see middle relievers get multi-year contracts, and clubs often come to rue their decisions when they do sign them to two- or three-year deals. Most middle relievers lead a nomadic existence.

Red Sox fans are waiting for Epstein to sign a familiar name who is coming off a strong season, but that may not happen. I think Epstein has taken the right approach to chasing free agent middle relievers, and that is sign as many of them

as cheaply as you can and create a taxi squad at Pawtucket.

That way the Red Sox have some options if the middle relievers on the major-league team aren’t getting their jobs done. All a GM can do is cross his fingers and hope that out of a group of six or seven relievers divided between Pawtucket and Boston, two or three of them turn out to be reliable.

That said, my personal dark horse to make the staff as a middle reliever next spring is 26-year-old Robert Coello, whose career path is similar to that of Troy Percival’s.

Like Percival, Coello began his pro career as a catcher after being drafted by the Reds in the 20th round in 2004. After being released by the Reds two years later, he was signed by the Angels, who began converting him into a reliever just as they had done with Percival.

Although Coello had a 1.37 ERA in 20 relief appearances in rookie ball in 2007 and fanned 26 batters in 26 innings while allowing only seven walks and 23 hits, the Angels released him.

After he spent a year pitching independent ball, the Red Sox signed him in 2009 and assigned him to advanced Class A Salem, where he was 5-3 with two saves in 33 games with a 2.05 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 66 innings while allowing just 38 hits.

Last summer Coello divided his time between Portland and Pawtucket, going 7-6 with one save and a 3.86 ERA in 32 games (13 of them starts) and whiffing 130 batters in 107 innings while allowing only 82 hits.

Coello got his first taste of the majors late last season, pitching in six games for the Red Sox.

Yankees deep in debt

You may have missed it a few days ago, but since the luxury tax on excess payroll was instituted back in 2003, the Yankees have shelled out more than $192 million in “taxes.” That’s enough money to have paid the salaries for an entire season for one of their teams during the last eight years.

Here’s another little-known fact about the Yankees that has been largely overlooked since the SportsBusiness Journal reported it last September: The Yankees and their subsidiaries, the YES Network and Legends Hospitality Management (their concessionaire), are carrying $3.2 billion of debt.

While teams carrying large debt loads make MLB nervous and there are rules about how much debt a team can have, the Yankees have managed to shift all but $97 million of their debt to their subsidiaries. That keeps MLB’s bean counters off their backs.

The Red Sox’ 2011 roster has taken shape early this season, and the official signing of Bobby Jenks only furthered their progress toward the upcoming year.

The team addressed several areas of need during the offseason, but are there any more moves ahead?

While the Sox got off to a hot start in the offseason, their AL East counterparts are still waiting for their big-splash moves to come. Red Sox Nation may be pleased with how their roster looks for 2011, but the outlook of the competition has yet to be determined.

Whatever question is still burning in your mind this hot stove season, the NESN Insiders have the answers.

The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo and NESN’s Kathryn Tappen will be in studio for Tuesday night’s edition of Red Sox Hot Stove Live and will be taking your questions throughout the episode.

Red Sox Hot Stove Live will run every Tuesday at 6 p.m. on NESN from Nov. 9 to Feb. 8. During every episode, NESN baseball analysts will answer questions from fans. Leave your questions in the comments section below, and watch Red Sox Hot Stove Live to see if Kathryn Tappen or Nick Cafardo answer them on air.

BOSTON — The buzz phrase in Red Sox Nation at the start of 2010 was run prevention. By not bringing back Jason Bay and instead investing in free agents like John Lackey, Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron, Boston was hoping to play a different brand of winning baseball.

Instead, run prevention was swiftly replaced by a much less savory phrase — injury riddled.

From the start, the Sox struggled to stay healthy. Cameron’s abdomen betrayed him in Spring Training and got progressively worse. Beltre plowed into Jacoby Ellsbury’s left side in the sixth game of the season, and the speedy outfielder was a non-factor all year. Josh Beckett’s back went bad in May, and the righty never got into a groove.

And by late June, just when the Red Sox were starting to hit their stride, medical maladies again found them. Dustin Pedroia broke his left foot on June 25 and would play just two more games. Kevin Youkilis went down for good on Aug. 2, with a torn muscle in his right thumb.

In truth, Boston, as banged up as it was, did a nice job by winning 89 games and staying in contention until the final week of the season.

Looking back at 2010 MLB Year in Review • Game prospering • Final standings • Statistical leaders

But after missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2006, general manager Theo Epstein produced a flurry of drama in December, first getting Adrian Gonzalez in a blockbuster trade with the Padres and then signing free-agent outfielder Carl Crawford for $142 million over seven years.

As the year drew to a close, there was once again a wave of excitement surrounding the Red Sox. Here is a look back at the highs and lows of 2010, recapped by the top five storylines of the calendar year.

1. Lowell’s return, retirement

It was hard to believe Mike Lowell was still with the Red Sox by the time the 2010 season started. In the previous two winters, his name had been attached to one trade rumbling after another and this time, Epstein signed Beltre as his replacement at third base. After yet another attempt to trade Lowell fell through at the July Trade Deadline, the veteran infielder was activated from the disabled list on Aug. 3. The Fenway faithful greeted the long-time fan favorite with a standing ovation and Lowell responded by swatting a three-run homer over the Monster on the first pitch he saw. After being mobbed by his teammates in the dugout, Lowell came back out for a standing ovation.

By the end of the season, Lowell did what he hinted at months earlier, announcing his retirement. The Red Sox held a special ceremony for Lowell at Fenway on the second-to-last day of the regular season. Though it was an emotional time for Lowell, he was able to produce once the game started. After hitting a two-run double in his first at-bat, Lowell ripped one high off the Monster in his second at-bat, and then came out for a pinch-runner, ending his fine career in style.

2. Injuries, injuries, and then some more injuries

Epstein and manager Terry Francona were in non-stop discussion with the medical staff in 2010. The Red Sox were en route to a seemingly routine win at Kansas City on April 9, when a fly ball was struck down the left-field line in the bottom of the ninth. Beltre went for it and so did Ellsbury. By the time the play was over, Beltre’s knee had crashed into Ellsbury’s left ribcage and the ball squirted free. Several of Ellsbury’s ribs were fractured and he would play just 12 games the rest of the way, thanks to recurring problems with his left side.

A week later, Cameron went on the first of his two DL stints, and he didn’t play a game after July 30. Even without two-thirds of its starting outfield, Boston still had confidence it could make a postseason run. But the air started to come out of the balloon that night in San Francisco when Pedroia, in many ways the team’s lightning rod, belted a foul ball off his left foot. Just one night earlier, Pedroia had gone 5-for-5 with three homers and five RBIs in a slugfest at Coors Field. It all became a bit too much when Youkilis had to have season-ending surgery, depriving Francona of his leadoff man, his No. 2 hitter and his cleanup hitter.

3. Heroes come out of nowhere

With two-thirds of the projected starting outfield on the disabled list more than on the field, some opportunities opened up. That was how Darnell McDonald, a Minor Leaguer for most of the last 12 seasons, got the call to Fenway on April 21. And all he did was belt a game-tying, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and a walk-off single off the Monster in the ninth to beat the Rangers. Not only that, but McDonald stayed on Boston’s roster for the remainder of the season, despite nearly being designated for assignment in late May.

In most years, McDonald’s debut with the Red Sox would be the best Cinderella story of the season. But Daniel Nava topped it when Boston promoted him from Triple-A on June 12. Once an independent league prospect, the Red Sox acquired Nava from the Chico Outlaws for the initial acquisition cost of $1. The story of him getting the call to the Major Leagues was noteworthy enough. But Nava made it surreal when, in front of a packed house at Fenway and a nationally televised audience on FOX, he belted a grand slam against Philadelphia’s Joe Blanton on the first pitch of his career.

4. The killer B’s — Beltre and Buchholz

When the Red Sox gathered in Spring Training, Beltre was thought of as a defensive stopper, but only a complementary piece on offense. Clay Buchholz? He was trying to prove he could be the team’s No. 5 starter. But once the games started to be played for real, Beltre emerged into a force, one of the best offensive players in the American League. Buchholz, meanwhile, beat Tim Wakefield out for the rotation’s final spot, and emerged into an ace. The only AL starter with a better ERA in 2010 than Buchholz? Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez.

While Buchholz figures to be a staple in Boston’s rotation for the next several seasons, Beltre’s stay with the team was short and sweet. With the acquisition of Gonzalez from the Padres, Youkilis will move to third base, leaving no room for Beltre, who is a free agent.

5. Epstein sends Hot Stove to a boil

Victor Martinez left Boston to sign a free-agent deal with the Tigers just before Thanksgiving, and Red Sox fans began to panic. If the team wasn’t going to top Detroit’s offer for Martinez, did that mean they weren’t going to be aggressive this winter? The answer was a resounding “No.”

Epstein put together a blockbuster package of three highly-rated Minor Leaguers (Casey Kelly, Anthony Fuentes and Anthony Rizzo) to the Padres for Gonzalez on Dec. 6. Three days later, he stunned the baseball world by signing Crawford to the ninth-largest contract in history. With those two moves, Red Sox fans started salivating for Opening Day, which will be played on April 1 at Texas against the defending AL champion Rangers.

Aside from dramatically improving the offense, the Red Sox also addressed the bullpen, adding two righties with solid track records in Dan Wheeler and Bobby Jenks.