It’s been an eventful weekend for right-hander Manny Delcarmen even though the hard-throwing righty hasn’t even tossed a single pitch since Thursday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Delcarmen heard his name pop up in trade rumors on Friday morning when ESPN’s Peter Gammons confirmed on ESPN Radio that the bullpen-challenged Washington Nationals had offered the pitching rich Sox a Delcarmen-for-Nick Johnson swap.

Later that afternoon, WEEI.com reported that Delcarmen’s agent, Jim Masteralexis, had phoned the Sox front office and was told by the Boston front office brass that the trade proposal was “immediately shot down.” The Sox organization has still not officially come out and either confirmed or denied that any Delcarmen-for-Johnson talks are dead, however. There’s every possibility in the baseball world that discussions concerning Johnson's left-handed bat will kick up again if David Ortiz doesn’t soon begin to regain his power-hitting form.

After flashing a brief glimpse of the old Big Papi while blasting his first home run of the season on Thursday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, Ortiz has slid back down in a 1-for-11 funk with a walk and six strikeouts. His average has dropped down to .201 headed into Sunday afternoon's interleague finale against the New York Mets, and the 33-year-old could be headed under the Mendoza Line with another rough day at the plate.

With all of that in mind, here are some thoughts from Delcarmen about the trade talks involving him – the second time that the out-of-options, hard-throwing righty has heard his name blowing through the MLB trade winds this season. It also might not be the last time his buddies text him with the latest rumors involving the 27-year-old if he keeps up the sparkling 0.95 ERA he's built up through the first 18 games out of the pen this season.

When you hear the trade talk stuff that kicked up the other day, Is that bothering you? Are you asking ‘Hey what’s going on here’ a little bit? MD: To me, I think it’s always good when teams are asking about you and they want you. It made me feel really good when Theo (Epstein) and those guys turned it down right away. Because I feel like I’m a part of the team here and I’m used to being here. To start fresh somewhere (else), I wouldn’t be too happy about that. It’s cool to know that Boston wants to keep me here.

Did you actually talk to Theo and Jed about it, or did you go through your agent? MD: Yeah, my agent texted me and he called me back and told me not to worry about anything. Right away I’m worried about what’s going on because it’s the first time I had heard about it. But (my agent) talked to (the Boston front office) and they said they shot it down right away. I had a chance to talk to (Sox pitching coach John) Farrell and he said ‘I know that you feel like you haven’t been throwing much and staff, but we’re going to get you in games’ and to just go out there and keep doing what I’m doing.

Do you feel like a lot of this is just need that teams have for pitching around the league, and they see you as a guy that might help them? MD: I’ve been saying this since the spring. We’ve got a really special bullpen. Besides Pap, we’ve got four our five guys that could close or set up somewhere else. That’s a pretty lucky bullpen to have, and to have that much power (stuff). I’m just glad to be a part of it and I think this is it with what we have right now. It’s going to take us where we want to go.

This is the second or third time that you’re name has popped up with trade rumors. Why do you think that is? MD: Teams are looking for pitching and we’re lucky to have that here. I think it’s going to be another special season (for us).

It goes without saying that you grew up here, got drafted here, played through the organization here and you’ve won a championship here…so you want to stay here and play for the Red Sox. MD: I got signed here, drafted here and want to end my career here. I know in baseball sometimes you can’t control things, but hopefully it works out and I stay here.