With Rick Porcello locked up for at least four years, Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson is the only starter remaining without a contract beyond 2015. Masterson, 30, is playing under a one-year, $9.5 million deal with Boston and is scheduled to become a free agent for the second straight offseason. He told reporters he won't let his contract uncertainty impact his approach on the mound, per WEEI.
"It can affect people when they do that, but it's also an easy out if a guy struggles or something happens to say, 'That's affecting him.' It may or my not be. But that's always an easy out when those things happen," Masterson said. "Like last year for me, people saying, 'The contract stuff must be affecting him.' That didn't feel good. You get that all the time. 'You should have taken it.' No. I would have actually felt worse if I had taken it because I knew I wasn't feeling good. I just think it's based off the person. But for some people it can make it hard to play."