Yankees Sign Hiroki Kuroda: Who's Left for the Red Sox?

It turns out that Friday the 13th was very bad luck for the Boston Red Sox this year. The rival Yankees pulled off a huge trade that sent Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi to Seattle in exchange for Michael Pineda and Jose Campos.

About five minutes after that deal was announced, we learned that New York also signed free agent Hiroki Kuroda to a one-year deal. 

It's unknown whether Boston was ever interested in acquiring Pineda, but it was one of the finalists on Kuroda. ESPN's Jayson Stark reported that New York and Boston were the main two teams bidding for Kuroda, but clearly the Yankees won that fight, paying him $10 million in 2012.

New York's starting rotation is now over-packed with viable starters, while Boston's stays, well, sort of empty. The Red Sox are banking on Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz to lead the way, while relievers Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves will round out the rest of the "trial" rotation.

Boston's real problem is that if Bard and Aceves don't work out during spring training, its resources are limited, especially now that another starting pitcher is off the market. 

The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo wrote on Friday about how and if the Red Sox should counter the moves made by the Yankees. Two possible candidates that he mentions are Roy Oswalt and Matt Garza.

Boston clearly is looking for low-cost pitchers—seen in the signings of Carlos Silva, Aaron Cook, Justin Germano, etc.—but they aren't answers to anything. A signing of Oswalt would basically be the equivalent of the Kuroda signing, only with a little more risk since he is injury prone.

He only appeared in 23 games last season, posting a 9-10 record and a 3.69 ERA, but he would be a veteran pitcher who can still get the job done.

Realistically, would you rather have Roy Oswalt as your No. 4 starter or Justin Germano? Yeah, that's what I thought.

The next option would be to trade for Chicago's Matt Garza. I wrote up possible packages to acquire Garza, but it was difficult to pull prospects from an already depleted minor league system.

He would cost Boston at least three promising prospects, and his success isn't guaranteed either. He's only averaged 12 wins in his five-year career but would still be a good fit for the Red Sox.

Boston could still look at other various options such as Edwin Jackson or Joe Saunders, but they could be out of the team's price range. 

The Yankees have now clearly ousted the Red Sox this offseason and will continue to top them during the season if Boston doesn't counter quickly.