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Red Sox deal with pitchers Carson Smith and Steven Wright ahead of arbitration deadline

While their fans wait for them to shell out some big money to a big-name, big-hitting free agent or two, the Red Sox took care of some lower-priced but still essential business yesterday.

With a Friday deadline looming, the club announced that it had reached an agreement on 2018 contracts with the second and third of their 12 arbitration-eligible players, reliever Carson Smith ($850,000) and starter Steven Wright ($1.1 million).

The group of players — reliever Tyler Thornburg already had settled on a salary last month — is a large one for one season. When the salaries are finally determined, the total amount of dollars will likely approach $46 million, close to a quarter of the team’s eventual payroll.