Boston Red Sox Rumors: Sox Have Made Offers to Roy Oswalt and Edwin Jackson

The chess match ensues.

In a Tweet by ESPN's Jim Bowden Wednesday night, it appears that the Boston Red Sox have made "offers" to Edwin Jackson and prefer him to Roy Oswalt.

Meanwhile, Jon Heyman of CBS Tweets that the Red Sox have also made an offer to Roy Oswalt but is unsure of Oswalt's interest level since he has not accepted the offer yet.  Peter Gammons has Tweeted that two GM's have told him of two possible landing spots for Oswalt.  Apparently he wants to reunite with the Maddux brothers in Texas or go to St. Louis. 

The wonders of social media, right?

As of late Wednesday night, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports had the Texas Rangers as the favorite to land Oswalt at this point, while the Red Sox are still one of five other teams in the mix.

As Oswalt find his services in high demand, the buzz has been significantly less for starter Edwin Jackson.  Rosenthal also wrote that the Red Sox could be trying to work out a one-year deal with Jackson, similar to the one they offered another Scott Boras client: Adrian Beltre in 2010.

In a radio interview with "The Big Show" hosts Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley on 93.7 WEEI-FM Wednesday, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington told the hosts that he has no specific orders to stay below the luxury tax.  This makes things interesting.

While all of the moves Cherington has made thus far contradicts what he said during his interview, it begs the question:  What if both Jackson and Oswalt agree to the deals the Sox have offered them?  

Automatically the team would be catapulted into luxury tax territory, but they also would have the best one through five rotation in baseball.  While it is likely that the team will obtain the services of one of these two pitchers, one can't help but wish for a very late Christmas present: pitching depth.

The single most appealing part of either deal is the likelihood that both are one-year offers.  With an impressive free-agent class of pitchers expected next winter, the team really only needs to bolster the staff for the 2012 campaign.

If Edwin Jackson is the man to come to Boston, there would not be pressure of being a No. 2 starter on this staff, and hopefully he would be able to replicate his 2011 campaign by putting up an ERA of 3.79 with a 12-9 record.  

Should Roy Oswalt come to town, he wouldn't necessarily need to be the horse he has been in the past.  In Houston, he was the ace of the staff for countless seasons.  In Boston, once again, he could be a solid No. 4.

Either way, Red Sox fans should expect at least one more move out of the front office before the start of the season, one that will solidify the starting rotation and hopefully quell some of the concern for this ball club.