Red Sox on Clemens: 'We don't need him'

MINNEAPOLIS -- David Ortiz was putting the finishing touches on his three-piece suit when he was asked about Roger Clemens signing with the New York Yankees.

"Who?" the Boston slugger asked, innocently.

Roger Clemens. He signed with the Yankees on Sunday.

"Oh, he did?" Ortiz said after Boston's 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins, his mischievous eyes hidden behind a pair of designer shades. "I hadn't heard."

Ortiz's ignorance may have been embellished, but while the rest of the baseball world marveled at the 44-year-old Rocket's return to New York, the Yankees' biggest rivals greeted the news with a shrug and a yawn.

"It would have been nice to have him, but we didn't need him. We DON'T need him," Red Sox ace Curt Schilling said. "It's May, a long way to go, but I like the way this team is comprised right now. This team has incredible makeup, it's got great chemistry and I feel like we were a legitimate World Series contender without him, so it doesn't change my mind."

Clemens agreed to a minor league contract on Sunday and expects to be pitching for the Yankees within a month. With an injury-depleted pitching staff, the Bronx Bombers definitely need the seven-time Cy Young Award winner after starting the season a disappointing 14-15 and falling 5½ games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East.

Clemens' agent, Randy Hendricks, was in Boston talking to the Red Sox on Thursday when the Yankees offered big bucks. By Friday evening, the New York hooked him with a one-year, $28 million contract.

"I'm sure it's a nice boost over there, given what they've got," Schilling said. "It's going to be a huge help to them."

But pitching has been the one constant for the Red Sox (20-10) this season. Schilling has been his usual stingy self and Josh Beckett is 6-0, with the two hard-throwing right-handers headlining a staff that includes Daisuke Matsuzaka and a rejuvenated Tim Wakefield.

"Boston, they can speak for themselves," Hendricks said. "They have a good rotation. They're in first. They're doing very, very well. They probably feel they have the luxury of waiting."

That seemed to be the sentiment in Minneapolis as the Red Sox prepared to hit the road after taking two of three from the Twins.

"It would've been nice," Beckett said. "Anytime you get one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived on your staff, it'd be a plus. But unless the Yankees decide to trade him to us, we're probably going to have to move on without him."