J.D. Drew is living with uncertainty these days. 

He has no idea how his injured left hamstring is going to hold up. The outfielder doesn't have a clue if the strike zone is going to morph back to something more manageable for his game. And Drew can't predict if he will even play beyond 2011, the final season of his five-year, $70 million deal with the Red Sox.

No matter. Some things are never going to change for the 35-year-old, and those are what is most important to Drew.

"My ultimate goal is to always be the person that I am," Drew said by phone from his home in Georgia. "Have good quality relationships with my teammates. When people walk in they might say I'm someone different, but I'm not going to change."

What Drew is is a deeply devout Christian, prioritizing his faith and family above everything else. He understands the perception of his persona and game, and how a subpar 2010 season and a lingering leg injury might be perceived by his detractors. But such opinions won't be what shapes his future — of that the affable outfielder is sure.

Drew hasn't ruled out retirement following '11, but such decisions are far from being finalized. That's what the coming season is for.

He may be the only big league player ever who finds himself choosing between seeking out another multimillion-dollar contract or dedicating his time to missionary work around the globe.

"Me and my wife talk a lot. We both have questions. We don't know which direction we'll head at the end of the season, if it's away from baseball or for more years in baseball," Drew said. "My desire is to play this year to the fullest, and if I end up walking away, great. It's a tough decision because that's been my livelihood for so many years, it's hard to walk away from it. It's something we'll pray about, think about, for sure. There are opportunities away from the game of baseball for me, but I have to make sure it's God's calling and leading me in that direction.

"I don't know where I'll plug in, or when I'll plug in. There is a big question mark. As much as I realize it's nice to do that, I don't want to walk away from the game and have some things left undone and have regret that I left a year or two too early. That being said, we'll kind of play out how the body feels as the year goes along. I'm excited about the season. it's going to be a great team to play for."

HAMSTRUNG BY THE HAMSTRING

The first step for Drew in terms of uncovering his future starts with the healing of the injured left hamstring that limited him to 127 starts in '10. Thus far, the right fielder is still searching for peace of mind in regard to the ailment.

"I don't think it's going to be a major issue when I get to camp, but there are going to be some questions from me when I get there to make sure that thing is good," Drew explained. "I'm kind of in the process now of doing some light running to see where I'm at. It feels better than it did, but that being said, baseball speed is a lot different than workout speed."

Drew said that the problem area resides just above his hamstring and below his gluteus muscle, an area that hasn't been able to receive enough blood flow to promote the healing process.

The veteran outfielder sought out platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy in December, a measure that thins out the existing blood and replaces it with blood that will better promote the healing process.

"I've had the whole offseason trying to figure out what direction we have to go to heal it up. It seems to feel a little bit better with exercise and things like that. We'll see where it ends up when I get down to camp," Drew said. "But that thing really bugged the heck out of me for the whole second half of the season. It was extremely painful. It wasn't like it was blown out or anything, but it wouldn't allow me to extend it out to run like I wanted to. I dealt with it. Day games were really brutal on it because getting out of bed and trying to get warmed up for a 1 o'clock game was really tough. I was able to manage most of the night games.

"I'm hoping it will be a non-issue, but that being said it is aggravating because it is one of those things that has lingered. It's just in a spot that doesn't get a lot of blood flow. It's not the belly of the hamstring, but just the attachment point. It gets irritated, and when it does it's extremely painful when trying to run down fly balls and running down the line. That being said, it is a lot stronger than it was during the season, so hopefully that will help overcome some of the issue when I get into camp and we can ease into where things are good and go from there."

Drew — who began his workouts this offseason earlier than normal and classified his offseason as "one of the better ones in a long time" — played in 139 games in '10. He hit .255 with 22 home runs and 68 RBI while finishing with an on-base percentage of .341, his lowest since 1999 (his first season in the major leagues).

GETTING BACK IN THE GROOVE

Drew watched 45 percent of the first pitches he saw in '10 cross the plate as strikes. That's 5 percent more than either of the previous two seasons. Such a stat might not seem like much, but for the patient lefty hitter it went a long way in painting a problematic picture.

"My whole thing is quality at-bats," he said. "I had a really tough time with that last year. I had fits trying to have quality at-bats. I think you watched and saw on TV. … What do you do? You scratch your head. It was hard to do what I do."

Drew won't come out and use the words "umpires" or "strike zone," but both were at the center of what bothered him. Another example: In '10, he fell behind into an 0-1 count significantly more than either '08 or '09. And what was his batting average when falling behind after the first pitch? Try .209. When jumping ahead with an 1-0 count? It was .297.

Get the point?

Besides the hamstring issues, Drew's inability to get a correct gauge on what was a ball and what was a strike in '10 will go down as his biggest frustration last season. 

"It's hard on my kind of play, and that was frustrating for me," Drew said. "It was a very frustrating year. What it affects is my approach the next at-bat. Instead of being the patient hitter and getting the pitch I can handle and drive, I would chase pitches away, rolling over balls, and swinging at pitches on strike one I would normally take. My goal for the season is to get back to what I do. Hopefully there are some adjustments that are made and we can get back to what we've normally done."

In many ways, that's what Drew is counting on … in more ways than one.