But the Red Sox quickly fell out of the race for the three-time All-Star, with reports surfacing that Oswalt wanted a club closer to his Mississippi home, and that he wasn't interested in getting offers from Boston and several other teams.
Now, Oswalt says he was open to checking out Boston — he just never got an offer, the Boston Herald reports.
While the Red Sox had made an offer over the winter, Oswalt was waiting until spring to make a decision. At that point, the ball was left in Boston's court, Oswalt said.
"They actually came down and visited with me, but they never offered any contract," Oswalt said, according to the Herald. "They visited with me all day, actually, one day and watched me throw on the side at Mississippi State and said they would get back with us, but they never really offered us a contract."
Oswalt, who played nine seasons in Houston before being traded to Philadelphia partway through 2010, ended up signing with the Rangers in a one-year, $5 million deal. He said he was also considering the Dodgers, and that the Red Sox even had an appealing situation for him — if they were interested.
"I thought the pieces they have, they had a chance to win," said Oswalt, who has won 20 games twice in his career and is 3-1 with a 5.22 ERA this season while battling injuries. "The adjustment with the new manager is a little bit hard sometimes, but once everybody gets to know everybody, they've got the pieces to go deep in the East. They acted like they liked what they saw and said they would get back with us. … I never got offered anything. I know I read a lot of stuff, people saying I didn't want to come up there, but I never got offered anything to go."
So, now the question becomes: Which came first? The Red Sox not offering, or Oswalt telling the Red Sox he wasn't interested in their making an offer?
Photo via Facebook/Roy Oswalt
