LAKELAND, Fla. -- David Price is familiar with his contract. And he's familiar with how to flip months on a calendar. So, yeah, he has noticed that he's eight months away from free agency.

But if that's something that America's most inquisitive media minds feel we need to ask him about every 10 minutes, that's our issue, not his.

"Honestly, I haven't put a whole lot of thought to [free agency]," Price said this week, leaning comfortably on a picnic table outside the Tigers' clubhouse at Joker Marchant Stadium. "If it happens, I'm fine with it. But I don't put thought to it on a day-to-day basis. I don't think about it before I go to bed. I don't think about it when I wake up. I don't think about it when I'm driving to the field."

No, he thinks about it when there's someone with a camera or a microphone or a pen or a notebook around asking him about it, because worrying about impending free agency is what we do. It's not what he does.

Ask Price if he has heard the big news that there are a half-dozen other ace-type starters heading for free agency next fall, and he deadpans: "I know a couple of them, I guess."

Ask him if he was paying attention this winter to the odd free-agent journeys of his former teammates, Max Scherzer and James Shields, and it's clear he was -- but more because of his friendship with Shields in particular than out of a desire to do a scientific analysis of why it took these guys so long to find a team.

"I guess the guy I talked to the most throughout the process would have been James Shields," Price said. "And he said it was a very tough time for him. It wasn't everything that maybe it was hyped up to be. I'm sure some guys love the experience. But the experience is going to be different for each guy. I think it's something that you want to be able to enjoy. You want to have fun with it.

"But honestly," he said again, in case this wasn't already clear, "I haven't put a whole lot of thought to it."

And you know what? We should actually take him at his word on this, because in truth, Price has lived through two stretches during his baseball career that were much more uncomfortable than a free-agent walk year.

The first began nearly a decade ago, during his sophomore year at Vanderbilt. He'd already been projected as the first pick in the 2007 draft. So every team in North America was watching every pitch he threw during the next two seasons with the Commodores. And all Price did was set school strikeout records in back-to-back seasons; win the Golden Spikes, Dick Howser and college player-of-the-year awards; and get drafted No. 1, ahead of the likes of Matt Wieters, Mike Moustakas and Madison Bumgarner.