This is an odd time of year for Tim Wakefield.

Here he is,  42-years-old and still flush with the security that comes with having the type of season that just about completely in his rear-view mirror. He has made 29 starts, won 10 games, could have won a half-dozen more, and carries an ERA (4.24) a quarter of a run lower than the league average.

Like most of the 13 previous seasons with the Red Sox, Wakefield played his role quite well. But now, as has been the case in at least a few of his eight trips to the post-season with the Sox, the knuckleballer is left waiting to find out what his next role will be.

Will he be on the roster for the American League Division Series, or will there be a repeat of a year ago?

“When you get to this time of year, obviously we don’t make the decisions,” said Wakefield prior to the Red Sox’ 6-1 win over Cleveland, Thursday night, “except for last year when I was involved in the decision. But you do whatever you can to help the team. I would be honored to get a start, if it’s going to happen I don’t know. We all wear the same uniform. You get it done however it can.”

This time around, however, Wakefield finds himself in position to perhaps fill a role he wasn’t deemed fit to occupy in last year’s division series against the Angels. He hurler acknowledged yesterday that he would be fit to pitch out of the bullpen if called upon, an option neither the team nor the pitcher deemed viable last year.

“I think this year is different,” he said. “I think I could be available in the bullpen if somebody got in trouble early.”

Last season, filling a different role simply wasn’t an option thanks to what was ultimately diagnosed as a SLAP tear in labrum in Wakefield’s pitching shoulder. This year, after a brief hiatus due to shoulder soreness, he feels fit enough to take on any task.

“Obviously last year, going into the ALDS, I knew they didn’t need a Game 4 starter, and the way my shoulder was feeling at that point it was probably a good decision because pitching out of the pen is a one-shot deal,” Wakefield said. “And I was trying to get healthy for the ALCS, and after that they didn’t feel it was right to go out there at 50 percent not knowing what was going to happen. It wouldn’t have been smart. But last year I was part of all the decisions.”

Wakefield understands the likelihood is that the Red Sox will go with three starters in the best-of-five ALDS, which will most likely also feature the Los Angeles Angels. It leaves both Wakefield and fellow starter Paul Byrd the position of potentially contributing from the uncharacteristic confines of the bullpen.

For both Wakefield and Byrd, the last time they experienced life as a reliever was in the 2004 playoffs. Wakefield’s most recent foray came on Oct. 18, 2004, when he pitched three innings of one-hit ball while helping lead the Red Sox back against the Yankees in the Game 5, extra-inning affair.

Byrd pitched out of the pen for the Atlanta Braves that same season, performing the task twice in the NLDS against Houston.

“No problem at all,” said Byrd regarding the possibility of pitching out of the bullpen. “I’m fine with it. It’s hard to go from the bullpen to a starter, but it’s really easy to go from a starter to the bullpen because you only have to get a guy out once.”

Besides the pair’s acumen for pitching in relief, another factor will be how each matches up with the opposition. Wakefield has pitched once this season against the Angels, turning in a solid outing in which he lasted into the eighth inning.

Wakefield has had good success against Angels first baseman Mark Teixeira, holding him to a .207 average in 29 at-bats, and has dominated Gary Matthews Jr, who is just 3 for 19 against the starter. But both Vladimir Guerrero (.421) and Torii Hunter (.378) have had solid success vs. Wakefield.

As for Byrd, he did turn in a fine, 5 1/3-inning outing in Anaheim, in which he allowed just one run. Yet there was also the three-inning, six-run outing against LA earlier in the season which tempered the optimism against the Sox potential playoff foe.

Individually, he owns Hunter (9 for 52), while having decent success against Teixeira (.263). Then there are Guerrero (.370) and Garrett Anderson (.360) who even things off between Byrd and his competition for a spot on the playoff roster.

For Wakefield, one thing he does know is that this won’t be a repeat of his most horrific playoff roster scenario. That came in 1999 when then-Sox manager Jimy Williams called the starter into his office to inform Wakefield of a most surprising decision – he wasn’t going to be on the ALCS roster.

“I was completely flabbergasted because we needed a Game 1 starter so I figured I was being called into the office to be the Game 1 starter,” Wakefield remembered. I was floored on that one. This isn’t going to be like that.”