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A look at the Red Sox’ pursuit of Ubaldo Jimenez, Erik Bedard, others 08.03.11 at 8:20 pm ET
By Rob Bradford

Ubaldo Jimenez met the media at Fenway Park Wednesday. (AP)

Ubaldo Jimenez sat in the Fenway Park interview room Wednesday afternoon, answering questions about joining his new team. He talked about how much he had grown since last pitching in Boston — a Game 2 start in the 2007 World Series with the Rockies in which he allowed two runs over 4 2/3 innings.

It was a scenario some had predicted as the non-waiver trade deadline approached last week. And it all came true, except for one small alteration — Jimenez was wearing a Cleveland Indians hat.

“If I tell you no, I’m probably going to be a liar because as a human being, you’re going to get all kind of thoughts in your mind,” said Jimenez when asked if he was paying attention to where he might be headed prior to the deadline. “I heard so many rumors, of course I thought about it. I put myself in different situations with different teams.”

And as the final few days until the deadline whittled away, the Red Sox were one of  the teams making a fairly significant push to put Jimenez in their organization.

According to a major league source, the Red Sox made a substantial offer to Colorado for Jimenez Friday, with the Rockies responding with a counter-offer later that day. The issue, however, was that Colorado was looking for near-major league-ready players — looking for some of the Sox top young position players — the kind of which the Sox were not in a spot to offer up in such a deal.

In fact, it was believed on the Red Sox side of things that they would most likely end up having to allocate even a steeper price of prospects in any deal for Jimenez than what Cleveland ended up trading because of there would be less of a presence of near-big league-ready chips.

The Indians would ultimately deal highly-thought of pitching prospects Alex White and Drew Pomeranz (both of whom could be in the Rockies’ rotation in 2012), outfielder Matt McBride (15 homers in Triple-A this season), along with another minor-league hurler, Joseph Gardner.

With it clear by Saturday that Colorado and the Red Sox weren’t going to match up for Jimenez, the Sox focused their attention on Hiroki Kuroda. But when the Dodgers’ pitcher decided he wasn’t going to waive his no-trade clause in any trade (another major league source said no deal had been presented to Kuroda prior to his decision), the Sox set their sights on Oakland’s Rich Harden. That deal — which included Lars Anderson and a player to be named later going to the A’s — fell apart due to concerns over the hurler’s medical reports.

What should be noted is that throughout all the negotiations involving deals for Jimenez, Kuroda and Harden, the Red Sox never stopped their pursuit of Erik Bedard, whose value — in the eyes of the Red Sox — hadn’t been affected by his 1 1/3, five-run outing Friday night. As far as the Sox were concerned, he had shown he was healthy and his stuff was good.

The Red Sox viewed any Bedard deal as separate from anything they might do in regards to the other pitchers they were pursuing. It was thought that, if things broke the Sox’ way, they could very well end up with two pitchers who had the potential to be valued starters in the postseason.

The Red Sox also explored the idea of acquiring the kind of bullpen help Texas ultimately secured in the form of Koji Uehara and Mike Adams, thereby perhaps piecing together some starts through a powerful bullpen. But the cost (prospect-wise) proved too rich to make such moves. It was an obstacle that also stood in the way of obtaining a right-handed outfield bat, of which there were few legitimate candidates, especially after Carlos Beltran had been dealt to San Francisco. But for various reasons, players such as Ryan Ludwick (not willing to meet San Diego’s asking price) and Reed Johnson (back issues) just weren’t deemed worth it.

After it was all said and done, it left the Red Sox with what they had prioritized all along, a pitcher who could potentially start a playoff game … with Jimenez proudly wearing an Indians hat.

“I just want to play baseball. It doesn’t matter what team. Where I am right now, I’m really happy,” Jimenez said. “I have a great opportunity I’m happy for it. I don’t think about anything else.”

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  • top ramon

    i’m hoping this means the sox will sign the top free agent shortstop in the off season

  • Mike Cameron

    Right maybe Julio Lugo, Edgar Renteria, Alex Gonzalez…..

  • gh

    ok here is what i dont get. cleveland wanted major league ready prospects. alex white is the only player they got in the deal that is major league ready. pomeranz was just draft last year, mcbride may be major league ready soon and joseph gardner i dont believe is major league ready. i think the sox will regret not trading for jimenez. he is an ace pitcher signed to dirt cheap contract for the next 3 years. lets hope bedard pitches well down the stretch.

  • mike in tampa

    my question is who on the sox is major league ready? Inglesias is probably the closest, but his bat is still suspect. kalish they think is major league ready but he has been hurt with various injuries all year long. the effectiveness of reddick has gotten kalish a pass in a way. going to be interesting what they do w/ these 2 in the off season. as they are both kind of the same player. every other top prospect in their farm system is a minimum 2 years away if not more. middlebrooks & ranaudo are in double & single a respectively. after that there is a pretty good drop off in prospect talent. doubrant i thought would of made the next step to being a top major league ready prospect, but he has been hit with injuries all year as well. mostly due to conditioning & him being lazy.

  • Ian

    Ubaldo isn’t even that good this year. His velocity and K/9 are both down. I’m happy with Bedard. We need more than either of these two anyways. The Sox pitching staff is weathered.

  • Mike

    According to AOL, the Sox system is ranked 14th in MLB, with only two players(Iglesius and Ranaudo) ranked in the top 100 prospects. What happened to the vaunted Sox farm system we were always told about—and don’t try to include the players they traded for Gonzo. None were ranked in Baseball America’s top 50 prospects. The Yanks nearly always draft after the Sox, yet are ranked 4th with 5 kids in the top 100.

  • Robert

    BEDARD MAY PROVE TO BE THE PRIZE OF THE DEADLINE TRADING PERIOD. IF HEALTHY, THIS IS THE GUY YOU NEED TO THROW AT NY, IN NY, IN A PLAYOFF GAME.

  • Joe

    Who is major league ready?

    LOL @ Mike with “prospect rankings.” These are the same rankings that had three Yankee pitching prospects ahead of Jon Lester.

  • RedSoxNation2011

    LOL@Mike

    Two of the alledged MFY prospects are Montero and Sanchez, two guys who will end up being DHs. One of the Red Sox farm teams had 7 SBs in one game against Sanchez last week. Next you are going to tell us Bichette’s kid is a potential super star.

    Banuelos is the only guy in the MFY system that has a chance to amount to anything. The rest are guys who are getting stats at lower levels where they aren’t challenged.

    PS-Please pass on our thanks to the MFYs for Aceves who is 7-1 this year for the Red Sox.

  • Steve

    Are you kidding me Mike? Any system that has recently produced MLB talent (Elsbury, Bard, Reddick, Lowrie, Buchholz) over the last three years is ok in my book. Then go back a few more years: Youks, Lester, Paps, Pedroia, add in enough talent to trade for A-Gon, Beckett, Salty. Try doing that withnthe Yanks system.

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