Clearly, a lot has changed in the last year for the Red Sox.

A year ago Adrian Beltre was the free agent addition with no expectations and John Lackey was the definition of a sure thing. Jacoby Ellsbury was coming off a 153-game, 70-steal season and Clay Buchholz was best known as The Guy Who Might Get You Adrian Gonzalez. 

Did I mention that things have changed?

For starters, the Sox spent $300 million to blow up a bridge. Carl Crawford and Gonzalez are the stories of the spring. Well, that and the quest for 100 wins that seems inevitable if you turn on a radio or talk to any Sox fan.

But has any player seen as much change in the last year as Tim Wakefield?

Think about it: A year ago Wakefield was coming off an All-Star season and appeared to be -- at worst -- battling Buchholz for the fifth spot in the rotation. And with the uncertainty surrounding Buchholz and the injury to Daisuke Matsuzaka, another 30-start season looked pretty likely for Wakefield.

Today? Wakefield is a forgotten man in the eyes of many if not most Sox fans. Had a great run, would've been nice to see him break the wins record, but the time is past. It's a new day, all that stuff.

And you know what? That's OK with Wakefield. He can live with low expectations.

"I've been in survival mode for 18 years, you know what I mean?" Wakefield asked at his locker on Tuesday morning at City of Palms Park, the same corner locker he's had since his first spring training with the Sox in 1996. "None of it bothers me."

There's no doubt that Wakefield is right -- he's a baseball survivor. I've written his before, but there is simply no better illustration of how long Wakefield has lasted in a business where tomorrow is promised to absolutely no one than to look at the box score from his debut with the Red Sox on May 27, 1995. 

Six pitchers (three from the Sox, three from the California Angels) pitched in the game. Five of those pitchers have not been active in the major leagues for a combined 70 years. 

And the sixth is Tim Wakefield, who laughed on Tuesday when first told that he has outlasted Derek Lilliquist (out of baseball since 1996), Ken Ryan (1999), Mike Bielecki (1997), Ken Edenfield (1996) and Mitch 'Wild Thing' Williams (1997) by a combined seven decades.

"It is an honor, though," said Wakefield. "It just shows dealing with adversity, dealing with injury, dealing with the ups and downs of a season. I like to call it perseverance. I've never given up on myself, or that I wanted to quit. Keep your nose down and keep grinding." 

And now the survivor faces perhaps the longest odds of his career. Sure, we've all kicked dirt on Wakefield at times during his 16 years in Boston -- a 5.14 ERA in 1996, a 5.48 ERA in 2000, left off the World Series roster in 2007 -- but this time just feels different, no?

Why? Well, he's 44 years old and coming off the worst season of his career. There isn't a spot for him in the rotation, and the bullpen is loaded (another change in the last year). 

Not unreasonable to envision a scenario which sees the Sox letting Wakefield go before the start of the season, is it? Thanks for the memories, have a day for him in June and move on. 

Just one minor glitch in the plan: Wakefield isn't interested in the gold watch treatment. He understands that his role is undefined at this point, but he's been around long enough to know how quickly things can change (there it is again).

"It's the situation," said Wakefield. "It is what it is. Nothing I can do about it. I have to accept and embrace it. I want to try and help us win as much as possible. So I can do either job. That's the wonderful thing about a knuckleballer, the assets we bring to a team are above and beyond just one job. I can start, I can relieve, I can close. Pitch on a day or two rest, all that stuff. So that's great to have."

Ah, the knuckleball. It's like Metamucil or a seven-wood -- not a bad thing to have handy as one enters middle age. Phil Niekro won 11 games with a 3.97 ERA at age 44 (and won 17 the year before and 16 each of the two seasons after). Charlie Hough had a record of just 7-12 at age 44, but his ERA and WHIP were both below the league average. And Hoyt Wilhelm had an 8-3 record with a 1.31 ERA in 49 games out of the bullpen for the 1967 White Sox. 

OK, those guys weren't coming off of 4-10, 5.34 (and a 6.00 ERA the second half of 2009), but it's something to cling to if you're making the case for relevancy, right?

"It's something that I've always known, it's not something that helped me make a decision one way or another," Wakefield said when asked about knuckleballers thriving in their 40's. "I still feel confident that kind of year can happen for me. My role doesn't dictate that right now, but if I get an opportunity I still feel like I can compete like I did 12 years ago, or 10 years ago, you know." 

Wakefield wouldn't bite on the what ifs -- he's convinced he will not only make this roster but play a key role at some point -- but he scoffed at the idea of perhaps pitching for another team should things not work out in Boston.

"Why would I? I've been here for so long, why would I go somewhere else?" asked Wakefield. "This [pointing to his No. 49 jersey hanging in his locker] is … that uniform is me. I can't, it'd be like Carl Yastrzemski going somewhere else to play one year or two years."

Let's forget for a moment the difference between Carl Yastrzemski and Tim Wakefield when looking at the history of baseball and instead focus on this: In an era where loyalty is just a word used to try and drum up some positive P.R., Wakefield is almost painfully earnest. Being the ranking senior athlete in Boston (Jason Varitek -- a Red Sox since 1997 -- and Paul Pierce (1998) are next in line) means something to him. Chasing the Cy Young/Roger Clemens (who was in the house at Ft. Myers to watch his son Kobe on Tuesday) record still means something. 

It's corny -- and who knows how Wakefield will feel if he actually does get released -- but the guy loves pitching for the Red Sox.

"I still want to be here, be a part of this," Wakefield said.

And that's not going to change.