Remember when we traded Marco Scutaro to free up money to sign a starting pitcher, and then everyone penciled in Roy Oswalt coming to Boston?
Not so much.
ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reports (via MLBTradeRumors) that sources around the league expect Oswalt to sign with the Rangers, possibly as soon as this week. One of his sources notes that another team would have to significantly outbid Texas to convince Oswalt to go elsewhere.
It makes sense. Roy never showed interest in pitching here, nor anywhere outside of Texas (close to his home in Mississippi). And the Rangers lost Neftali Feliz to injury, with the expectation that he'll return to the bullpen when he comes back, so a spot should open up for Oswalt.
And really, it's fine. Felix Doubront is better than we could have expected, and Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz aren't going anywhere. Some (OK, many) want Daniel Bard to return to the pen, but if the team is committed to him as a starter, shouldn't they give him more than eight starts to see if he can do it?
Besides, the heart of the matter is this: If he doesn't want to pitch here, it's not going to go well. We've seen it a million times, some guys are very sensitive to location. Just because they get a bunch of money, it doesn't mean they're going to be comfortable.
Adios, Roy. It was fun exhaustively speculating about you for three months.
