Report: Tim Wakefield Received Contract Offers From Four Teams Before Deciding to Retire

Tim Wakefield decided to call it a career on Friday. However, there was no shortage of interest in the knuckleballer before he made his announcement.

Wakefield turned down four contract offers, including one guaranteed major league offer, in order to either return to Red Sox or retire, WEEI.com's Alex Speier reports. Wakefield's agent, Barry Meister, revealed such to Speier.

"I said, 'Do you want me to play the agent game, the what-if game, and find out what they want to offer? I know that one wants to offer you a major league contract,'" Meister said of his conversation with Wakefield. "He said, 'No. I'm going to retire as a Red Sox one way or the other.'"

Wakefield spent 17 seasons in Boston after playing his first two seasons in Pittsburgh. He announced his retirement on Friday, and he's made it clear that he never wanted to play for any other team after arriving in Boston in 1995.