There has been a remarkable lack of news coming from Boston since the Joel Hanrahan trade. In fact, outside of Ken Rosenthal confirming that the Sox are in on Washington's Mike Morse, and the tidbit about the Sox scouting Javier Vazquez, we've heard pretty much nothing.
At some point, though, the sheer lack of news can become news in itself. Or at least that's what I tell myself. Consider, for instance, this report from yesterday that the Padres, Rangers, and Pirates were all in on Shaun Marcum. Or the laundry list of teams that we now know are in on Detroit starter Rick Porcello. We've heard that the Padres, Orioles, and Pirates are in on Joe Saunders, and that nobody seems terribly interested in Kyle Lohse.
Long story short: there are many pitchers available for teams willing to shell out some low-to-middling amount of money, and the Red Sox are not in on any of them.
Is it possible that the Sox are quietly watching, waiting in the wings for someone to fall? Yes, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what they're doing, but that's the closest you're going to get to inactive when it comes to a major league team with any level of roster flexibility (full though it may be, there's certainly room for improvement on the 25-man). And it's a position we're used to: it's the same one the Sox found themselves in as the 2011-2012 offseason wound down.
It's entirely possible the Red Sox will sign someone else. Players slip through the cracks now-and-again, and by the end of the year a few million dollars from the Red Sox for a one-year deal may look like a God send. Just ask Julian Tavarez how bad it can get. But as we know from last year, the pickings end up mighty slim come February and March, with Javier Vazquez (one year removed from the majors) likely representing the cieling. If there's anybody else willing to get in a real competition for a player's services, though, it seems unlikely that the Red Sox will be tangling it up. For now, Buchholz - Dempster - Doubront - Lackey - Lester (alphabetized for simplicity's sake) is the plan, like it or not.