Plenty of athletes say, "It's not about the money." Tim Wakefield, apparently, means it.

Wakefield yesterday agreed to a contract extension with the Red Sox through the end of next season, with the Sox holding what amounts to a perpetual option in the years to follow.

Wakefield, who this season is earning $4.67 million in the final year of a multi-year deal, will get a $4-million base for 2006, with incentives paid out based on starts.

The knuckleballer will be paid $50,000 per start for starts 11-20. He'll make $75,000 per start for every start from 21-30.

If Wakefield makes 30 starts next season, he could earn $5.25 million. That's hardly chump change, but neither is it nearly as much he might have commanded on the open market this fall.

Last offseason, a total of nine free-agent pitchers received multi-year deals with an annual average value (AAV) of $7 million or more. That list includes Matt Clement, Carl Pavano, Kris Benson, Russ Ortiz, Al Leiter, Brad Radke, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Kevin Millwood. A 10th -- Freddy Garcia -- signed his extension with the White Sox before he could reach the market.

Of those, only Leiter and Martinez have won more games than Wakefield in the big leagues. None has been durable -- Wakefield has made just one trip to the disabled list (1997) since making his major-league debut in 1992.

Look at it this way: If Wakefield makes

30 starts next season, the Red Sox will pay him slightly more than half what they'll pay Clement ($9.5 million) next season.

Does that sound odd? It does if you're a major-league pitcher intent on taking every last dollar off the table, one more gun for hire.

This winter's free-agent pitching market, it's generally agreed, will be a thin one. For now, the two best starters set to auction themselves off are A.J. Burnett (career won-lost record: 39-39; number of starts last two seasons combined: 24) and Brad Penny (career record: 49-44, and currently on the disabled list).

"Wakefield would have gotten $8 million (annually) this winter -- easily," said the general manager of another major-league team.

But money wasn't what drove Wakefield's decision to sign this deal with the Red Sox. He focused on more ideals that seem almost quaint: comfort, loyalty and stability.

"Regardless of the outcome of last year's postseason," he said yesterday, "I'd still feel very strongly that this is the organization I want to retire with. I'm very thankful we were able to get something done."

Wakefield has evolved into a fan favorite in New England. Three months after serving up the pitch that Aaron Boone hit for a pennant-winning homer in the infamous ALCS Game 7 defeat to the Yankees in 2003, Wakefield was greeted with a standing ovation at the Boston Baseball Writers Association annual dinner, a reception that greatly moved him.

The connection between the pitcher and the fan base is obvious.

"I love taking the mound here and pitching in front of our fans," he said. "For me, it's the best place in the world to pitch. The fans are so knowledgeable about the game and so passionate about the players on the team. . . . There's a special connection there. I know I feel that special connection every time I walk on the field to take the ball every five days."

The Red Sox have made it known that they will only offer extensions to prospective free agents if the deal represents a bargain to them. They did it with David Ortiz last spring, signing him to a two-year, below-market deal, and now they've done it with Wakefield.

"It's a great day for the organization," said general manager Theo Epstein, "to be able to retain somebody who represents so much of what we want to stand for and somebody who brings honor to the Red Sox uniform."

If form holds, the Red Sox may be picking up Wakefield's option again and again, the way the Los Angeles Dodgers used to do with manager Walter Alston. Knuckleballers have a habit of pitching -- and pitching effectively -- well into their 40s. Wakefield is just 38.

"His retirement," said Epstein, "is nowhere in sight."

When that day does come, Wakefield's name will be even higher among the club's all-time leaders in starts, strikeouts and victories. But the real measure of the man was on display yesterday when he took less -- and proved more.