"Jonathan Papelbon has his health, he has his family and he has the job he has held for five seasons. Bobby Jenks or no Bobby Jenks, Dan Bard or no Dan Bard, it will be Pap on the mound in the ninth inning of Opening Day if the Red Sox have a lead that needs holding.

The only thing Papelbon does not have, for now, is his swagger.

And make no mistake about it, from the day he arrived in the majors in the summer of 2005, Jonathan Papelbon has been among the league leaders in swagger. It's practically stamped on his forehead.

But he got lit up by the Angels in Game 3 of the 2009 American League Division Series, ending that season on a somber note, and last year his eight blown saves were the most in the AL. And so yesterday, when he did his first official meet-and-greet of spring training, it was a subdued, borderline bashful Jonathan Papelbon who sat before the cameras.

To be sure, he said everything you would have expected him to say. Asked right away to comment on last year, he said, "Obviously it was down season, but you tend to take things from each season and then you try to learn from them."

With the Red Sox on a shopping frenzy for relievers this offseason, including a quixotic attempt to bring the great Mariano Rivera to the Red Sox, did Papelbon think he'd be traded?

"Honestly, I never thought that," he said. "There was never a point this offseason where I didn't think I would be here."

As he approaches free agency, has it occurred to him this could be his last season with the Red Sox?"