Red Sox Rumors: Edwin Jackson, Roy Oswalt and Prince Fielder
The Boston Red Sox recently signed free agent outfielder Cody Ross, but more of their newly acquired salary space figures to be spent in the coming days. Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com is reporting that the Red Sox are continuing to monitor the markets for free agent starters Edwin Jackson and Roy Oswalt. Also, with the announcement of the Prince Fielder signing, Alex Speier of WEEI.com looked into why Boston decided to grab Adrian Gonzalez when they did rather than wait on this offseason’s high-profile list of free agent first baseman.
While many have come out against the Red Sox trade that sent Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies, it did provide Boston with approximately $6 million to play with. Boston lacked depth in the outfield and rotation and reportedly hoped to use their newly acquired funds to address these needs.
The Red Sox have signed outfielder Cody Ross to fill one hole, and Jon Heyman reported the club is also eying starting pitchers Edwin Jackson and Roy Oswalt. Oswalt can reportedly be had on a one-year deal and his price appears to be falling more and more into Boston’s range. Jackson figures to warrant a multi-year deal, though the market has been extremely slow to develop for the right-handed enigma.
Beyond a starting pitcher, Heyman also noted that the Red Sox are looking at infielders. Having dealt away a pair of shortstops this offseason, Scutaro and Jed Lowrie, the Red Sox could be looking to add some depth to their pool of middle infielders.
Alex Speier wrote an interesting piece yesterday on why the Red Sox decided to take the path they did to find their slugging first baseman. Rather than wait on Fielder and Albert Pujols to hit the open market this winter, Boston traded for and later extended Adrian Gonzalez. Speier examines the Red Sox thought process and the three first basemen in question.
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You can check out all of the available free agents by position below.