Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced Sunday that Beckett, who has missed most of Spring Training with back spasms, will not accompany the club when it leaves for Japan on Wednesday. Boston will play two exhibition games against Japanese teams at the Tokyo Dome on March 22 and 23, and then will open their regular season against the A's on March 24 and 25.

Beckett, coming off a 20-7 mark in 2007 with a 3.27 earned run average for the eventual World Series champions, left a start on March 8 after just one warmup toss due to back spasms. The 27-year-old just resumed throwing on Sunday for the first time since suffering the injury.