PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. � When Fernando Rodney reported to spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays a year ago, Joe Maddon already could sense there was something a little bit different about his closer.

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. � When Fernando Rodney reported to spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays a year ago, Joe Maddon already could sense there was something a little bit different about his closer.

Rodney had put together a season for the ages in 2012, compiling a 0.60 ERA while striking out 76 and walking 15 in 74 2/3 innings pitched. He received votes not just for the Cy Young Award but for Most Valuable Player. And then while the rest of his Tampa Bay teammates worked their way into shape for the season in March, Rodney closed out all eight games of the Dominican Republic�s World Baseball Classic title run � 7 1/3 shutout innings.

When the regular season began, however, Rodney wasn�t the same pitcher that he�d been the year before. His ERA had climbed to 5.16 by the end of May, and he�d issued 19 walks in his first 22 2/3 innings.

In some ways, Rodney had reverted back to the pitcher he�d been before that remarkable 2012 season � a pitcher with a tendency to issue too many walks. He�d actually walked more pitchers than he struck out in 2011. His strikeout-to-walk ratio had consistently hovered around 1.5 in the three seasons before that.

By the end of 2013, after finding his form late, Rodney had pushed his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 2.2 � still well shy of what he�d done in 2012.

�The command wasn�t as perfect as it had been,� Maddon said. �When he had that historic season, the guy didn�t walk anybody. His stuff was different (from previous years) in the sense that it was all like it had been, velocity and movement, but he was also throwing strikes. Last year he struggled with that a little bit but then came on strong at the end.�

Did Maddon blame the World Baseball Classic? Not in the way you might think.

�It wasn�t a physical hangover,� he said. �It was an emotional hangover from the WBC that really was the impactful part.�

For that reason, while Rodney flopped in his bid to back up his historic season, the Red Sox still can be optimistic that a better fate awaits Koji Uehara.

Uehara last season compiled the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in Red Sox history � 101 strikeouts, nine walks � to go along with a 1.09 ERA in 73 appearances out of the bullpen. Anyone expecting him to match those numbers figures to be disappointed.

But anyone expecting him to regress too far back might be surprised.

For one thing, Uehara didn�t have a World Baseball Classic to contend with. For another, Uehara has a much longer track record of success than Rodney had.

Of the 14 occasions since 1997 when relievers approximated the season Uehara put together last season � more than a strikeout an inning, fewer than two walks per innings, an adjusted ERA-plus of 200 � seven of those pitchers posted a strikeout-to-walk ratio north of 4.0 the following season.

Only three out of 14 times did a pitcher follow up a Uehara-esque season with a strikeout-to-walk ratio lower than 2.51, last year�s major-league average. One of those three was Rodney.

But Rodney appears to be an outlier among those relievers who put together some of the most dominant seasons in recent history. Nothing in the track record Rodney had indicated an ability to strike out five times as many hitters as he walked over a full season. Entering the 2012 season, Rodney had �never had a full season in which he�d struck out three times as many hitters as he�d walked, let alone five.

What Uehara has going for him is his track record. The season before he signed with the Red Sox, he struck out more 14 batters per walk in 37 appearances with the Texas Rangers. In three seasons as a full-time reliever in the major leagues before last season, he struck out 183 hitters and walked just 17 � a strikeout-to-walk ratio north of 10.

What Uehara did last season is something he�d done for years.

�I don�t know Uehara, but he�s a pretty simple pitcher � and I mean that in the most complimentary way,� Maddon said. �Because of the way he is, he�s got a pretty good chance of repeating close to what he did last year.�

Twitter: @brianmacp