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(Editor's note: This is the second installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into Red Sox spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- When the Red Sox picked up Marco Scutaro's option after last season, they were tacitly declaring that Cuban defector Jose Iglesias remained a work in progress, a wonderfully gifted defender who at 22 lacked sufficient at-bats in pro ball to make the leap to the big leagues.

Then they traded Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies, and all bets were off.

Even for a team that has installed a turnstile at short since trading Nomar Garciaparra in 2004, the Red Sox enter 2012 with more uncertainty at the position than any year since 2001, when spring wrist surgery sidelined Garciaparra until July.

The trade of Scutaro, and Jed Lowrie before him, leaves the Red Sox with what on paper appear to be unpalatable options at best, unworkable choices at worst.

Mike Aviles? After undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery in 2009, he couldn't crack the Kansas City Royals as an every-day player, was sent back to the minors as recently as last June, and was dumped by the Royals after complaining of his utility role. If the Red Sox were planning on Aviles' being their shortstop this season, they had a clever way of disguising it: They asked him to take an outfielder's glove with him to Puerto Rico and work on his outfield skills in winter ball.

Nick Punto? Last season in St. Louis, Punto was hurt on the first day of workouts and underwent surgery for a sports hernia. He wound up making two more trips to the disabled list in 2011, once with a strained flexor muscle in his forearm that affected his throws from the left side of the infield, and once with a strained oblique muscle.

Punto started six games at short for the Cardinals last season. He also is 34.

Aviles and Punto both have their upsides. Aviles responded to regular playing time with the Red Sox by swinging a productive bat, though his .317/.340/.436 batting line was the result of just 107 plate appearances. But only six of his 42 starts came at short.

Punto, when healthy, has always been an above-average defender, regarded by Ron Gardenhire, his former manager in Minnesota, as one of his favorite players because of his readiness to do whatever was asked at him, at any position. During the World Series last season, pitcher Joe Nathan, then with the Twins, said every pitcher on the staff missed him.

"As a pitcher, to have a guy behind you who can play that type of defense and take away hits and runs -- some of the plays he makes are just unbelievable," Nathan said.

The Red Sox signed Punto to a two-year, $3 million deal in December, valuing him for his glove all over the diamond, and for his reputation as the kind of clubhouse presence the team was sorely lacking. There was little reason then, or now, especially given Punto's trouble throwing last season because of a forearm strain that caused him to miss 36 games and had him contemplating surgery to repair ligament damage, that the Sox saw him as their every-day shortstop.

A week before spring training, however, the party line is that Aviles and Punto are capable replacements for Scutaro.

"What we felt is we had a couple guys in Aviles and Punto who we thought could help us get close to giving us what Marco did," Sox GM Ben Cherington said in a recent interview.

Aviles figures to get first crack at the every-day job, with Punto the most logical candidate to fill the utility role. But in the wings will be Iglesias, who burns with the desire to fulfill the promise the Red Sox saw when they gave him a four-year, $8.2 million contract as a 19-year-old.

The Red Sox may well decide that they can no longer wait for his bat to come around. The last time they won a World Series, in 2007, they did so with a so-called “offensive” shortstop, Julio Lugo, who posted a .294 on-base percentage. Bobby Valentine, when he managed the Mets, made another Cuban defector and exquisite defender, Rey Ordonez, his every-day shortstop as a rookie.

Ordonez was 25 at the time and had four seasons of pro experience, compared to two for Iglesias. But Valentine, once he lays eyes on Iglesias, may decide that time can't wait.

Coming Thursday: How strong is the Red Sox outfield?

BOSTON -- A few notes on Daniel McGrath, the 17-year-old Australian pitcher signed by the Red Sox, courtesy of Jon Deeble, Boston's Pacific Rim scout who signed him:

* McGrath is a 6-foot-3 left-hander who had 15 teams bidding on him, but was partial toward the Sox, a team that he and his family have followed as fans.

* His fastball tops out at 91 and averages 88. He throws a curve and changeup, both of which have a chance to be above-average pitches.

* He will finish high school this year, then go to the Australian baseball academy followed by a trip to the world championships in Korea in August. He has already been to two world championships at the under-17 level, in Taiwan and Mexico.

* He pitches in the Australian baseball league and is expected to pitch out of the bullpen in the playoffs this weekend. No 17-year-old has pitched in this league, which is populated by some players with pro experience, up to Triple-A.

Curt Schilling was on SportsCenter (video above) and Mike & Mike this morning (click here to listen) and discussed a ride range of baseball topics. While it’s not the first time he’s addressed either of these situations, he talked more about Terry Francona’s departure in Boston and Manny Ramirez as a teammate. He also talked about Bobby Valentine and whether he’ll have immediate success with the Red Sox.

On SportsCenter, Schilling talked about Valentine and the challenge he’s facing and also touched on Francona’s. Here’s are some higlights:

-- On Valentine and the tough job he faces: “I don’t know what the chemistry is going to be like. It was clearly one of the reasons why they failed at the end of last year and one of the reasons why all the issues going into the offseason. Bobby’s got a tough job. He’s gonna spend the entire spring answering very few questions about baseball and on the field and a lot of questions about fast food and the clubhouse and that’s unfortunate -- having said that, getting the chance to spend a year around Bobby last year, and getting to know him and then watching how he’s handled himself coming in there … I don’t think you could ask anything more if you’re the Red Sox. I think there’s going to be a sense of accountability he’s going to walk in asking for and demanding that probably should be the way it works out now.”

-- On his initial reaction when Valentine was hired and his thoughts now: “I just didn’t see the fit. My perception of Bobby as a manager is the Mets. And I wasn’t a Bobby guy when Bobby was with the Mets. He’s clearly a very different guy now, he’s matured as a manager and as a person. You can never get around the fact that he’s a baseball lifer and guys like that tend to make things work. Having spent a year with him now and watching how he’s handled it, I think he’s probably one of the few guys that can turn this thing around and make it work right away.”

-- On Francona’s departure and how it was handled: “It was disappointing. Everything that he had done to bring them two World Series and the fact that they kind of kicked him out the door … was incredibly disappointing, but it’s a business and there are egos and reputations and all the things involved that no one wants to see involved, and ultimately I think that they did him a great disservice in the things that they said and did when he left.”

Schilling also discussed Francona’s exit on Mike & Mike and touched on Manny Ramirez as a teammate among other things:

On Ramirez: Schilling said that deep down Manny was "a genuinely good kid." He called him "stunningly talented" with a bat in his hands on days he wanted to play. But he said there were times he felt cheated as a teammate because Manny clearly didn’t want to be on the field.

He also talked about Manny's return to baseball and said that teams that are interested in signing him need to know that Manny is what he is and “buyer beware.”

BOSTON—Jacoby Ellsbury will see and hear a lot of this in the coming weeks, questions about whether he can duplicate his MVP-worthy performance in 2011.

Dan Szymborski of Baseball Think Factory weighed in on the subject on ESPN Insider. Here are his thoughts:

2011 Projected OPS: .733
Actual OPS: .928

Thanks to the literally legendary collapse of the Red Sox in the final weeks of the season, Ellsbury's breakout 2011 will be one of the few things fans will look back on positively. Not only did Ellsbury come back well from a 2010 ruined by injury, but he hit 32 home runs, a number nobody saw coming.

Historically, when players have had these kinds of home run breakouts, their follow-up seasons have been a mixed bag. However, players have generally kept quite a bit of improvement from even the flukiest-looking home run totals. While Ellsbury might not hit 30 again, it's extremely likely he'll continue to hit more than the 10 he was hitting just a few years ago. ZiPS projects a decline to 16 home runs, but that's with only 560 projected plate appearances -- if Ellsbury gets 732 plate appearances, he should hit 20 again.

Another encouraging sign is the impressive uptick in his defensive statistics in center. While defensive numbers should be taken with a very large grain of salt in the short term, there's a lot more reason to like his defense than before.

2012 projection: .290/.345/.457, 16 HR, 62 RBIs, 40 SB

(Editor’s note: Today begins our “10 Questions in 10 Days” series leading into Red Sox spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

A year ago at this time, Bobby Valentine was directing traffic in a blizzard, in his role as public safety director for his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Now as new manager of the Red Sox, Valentine finds himself charged with navigating past another storm, the Great Collapse of 2011, which swallowed up a Red Sox season, took down a manager, splattered the general manager on his way out of town and shredded a few other reputations along the way.

At first blush, Valentine is not the obvious candidate to restore order -- in his previous incarnation as a big-league manager, with the New York Mets, the normally understated Sporting News ran a cover story asking, WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE BOBBY V? He was battler, bluster, Barnum and baseball savant all compressed into one tightly wrapped package, ready to bare his teeth and put up skinned knuckles to any challenger, be it his players, his bosses, the opposing dugout or the paid scribblers who took sides in chronicling his every move.

He took the Mets to the playoffs, and then a World Series, and yet his departure after the 2002 season was met more with relief than regret. He had to go to the other side of the world to rehabilitate his image, and in Japan won the adulation he craved but never fully realized here, taking an also-ran to its first Japan Series title in 31 years. Given near-total control of the Chiba Lotte Marines, Valentine brought passion, persistence and brilliance that was rewarded with success on the field, not to mention a fattened bank account.

While in Japan, Valentine says, he had opportunities to come back and manage in the big leagues, the Rays, Marlins and Dodgers all showing varying degrees of interest, but when he did return stateside, it was as an ESPN broadcaster. He came late to the Red Sox managerial search -- at least the one conducted publicly by new GM Ben Cherington -- but embraced the opportunity first proffered him by Sox CEO Larry Lucchino. At 62, he said, Valentine saw the Red Sox position as a dream job, and a chance to realize his greatest unfulfilled ambition, winning a World Series.

In his first two months on the job, Valentine has displayed the boundless energy for which he is known, recasting the coaching staff, reaching out to his players, regaling fans on the banquet circuit and reiterating at every opportunity his respect for, and appreciation of, Cherington, who has responded positively in kind.

The true hard work lies ahead. Valentine’s predecessor, Terry Francona, left with two World Series rings and a strong argument that he was the best manager the team has ever had. Chances are this team, as Francona has acknowledged, is ready for a new voice, but will the players be prepared, after the laid-back Francona, for the in-your-face style of Valentine who, in past incarnations at least, pulled no punches?

In what he surely views as his last, best chance, perhaps Valentine will more deftly exercise diplomacy when it’s called for, deflect the spotlight away when it shines too brightly on him at the expense of the team, and remain loyal to the idea of close collaboration over open confrontation with the front office. There is little doubt that he will have few peers in extracting every bit of talent out of his roster.

The Red Sox, in the reign of John Henry, have avoided the pursuit of a powerful presence in the dugout. They have one now. Will the “V” in Bobby V stand for victory, as the Red Sox believe, or vanity, as Valentine’s many critics claim? The great experiment is about to begin.

Coming Wednesday: Who will play shortstop?

Nineteen-year-old Aruban shortstop Xander Bogaerts has the highest potential of any prospect in the Red Sox minor league system. Period. That’s why it’s not surprising that he’s ranked as a top-three prospect in the organization by SoxProspects.com, Baseball America, MLB.com and minorleagueball.com, despite likely being a few years away from even getting a shot at the major leagues.

Bogaerts’ baseball career has been quite an interesting journey -- from learning the game in his grandmother’s backyard in Aruba, to signing a professional contract with the Red Sox in August 2009 on the same day that his twin brother, Jair, signed with the club, to vaulting to top-prospect status in Greenville, S.C., in 2011.

“I started playing baseball at the age of 4 in the backyard of my grandmother’s house,” Bogaerts said. “My uncle taught us the basics. In Aruba, there isn’t really high quality baseball like there is in the Dominican or in Venezuela, but we have talent. I played in the little leagues as a kid and realized that I was having more fun when I was playing the game than anything else.”

A projectable, naturally-gifted athlete with a lean-but-powerful frame and an unbridled passion for the game, Bogaerts began receiving significant interest from major league scouts at the age of 16.

“I got attention from a lot of other teams,” Bogaerts said, “but Boston wanted both my brother and I, so that's what made the decision easy for us. It’s been a great experience playing my whole life with Jair, and I was intrigued by the idea of playing professional ball with him.”

Former Red Sox scout Mike Lord and former director of international scouting Craig Shipley signed Bogaerts to a professional contract on Aug. 23, 2009, during the second month of the 2009-2010 international signing period. The contract came with a generous $410,000 signing bonus. On the same day, Boston signed Jair, a large-framed catcher, to a $180,000 bonus.

Bogaerts impressed early onlookers, first during a short stint at minor league spring training in late March 2010. He showed a smooth, fluid swing with strong hands, good separation and the ability to create lift on the ball to all fields. After spending only two weeks stateside, he returned to Aruba to finish high school, slightly delaying his professional debut. In June 2010, following graduation, Xander and Jair both were assigned to the Dominican Summer League.

In the DSL, Bogaerts posted an impressive .314/.396/.423 line, with 15 extra-base hits in 239 at-bats. In the process, he was named a DSL All-Star and took home the award for 2010 Red Sox Latin Program Player of the Year. Meanwhile, Jair struggled to impress on offense, hitting just .170 in 46 games, and while he showed some signs of promise on defense, his movements were a bit rigid for him to be considered a future major league backstop.

Bogaerts really hit the radar for those who scouted him during the 2010 Florida Fall Instructional League. According to SoxProspects.com director of scouting Chris Mellen, Bogaerts stuck out by demonstrating a high baseball IQ, impressive maturity and solid potential to become a middle-of-the-order, run-producing bat at the major league level. However, there were certainly developmental needs in the areas of pitch recognition, strike zone judgment and dealing with off-speed pitches. Additionally, Bogaerts’ defense still was raw, as would be expected for a player of his age and experience.

He continued to impress scouts during minor league spring training in 2011, flashing tremendous raw power and home run potential. When Bogaerts got the barrel of the bat on the ball, he really showed an elite ability to drive the ball with authority, particularly for an 18-year-old shortstop. He spent the early part of the 2011 season in extended spring training in Fort Myers, but earned a promotion to Low-A Greenville on June 9, 2011. In the process, he became the first player in the Boston system to go directly from the DSL to Greenville under the current ownership regime (skipping over both the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and short-season Lowell).

“Playing in Greenville, I saw a lot more off-speed pitches, a lot of breaking stuff and more velocity,” Bogaerts said. “In the DSL, I faced mostly pitchers who didn't have a lot of control. In Greenville, the pitchers had better control and better stuff.”

Meanwhile, Jair stayed back in the DSL in 2011 and was converted to first base. He started to come around offensively, hitting .288 /.387/.404 in 156 at-bats, but remained three levels behind his brother.

Despite the aggressive placement, Bogaerts thrived with the Drive, hitting .260/.325/.509 with 16 home runs in 265 at-bats. For sabermetricians, the .249 isolated power number really jumped off the page for such an age-advanced player. For scouts, the perfect sound of the ball coming off of Bogaerts’ bat and the distance of his home run shots were common notes in most scouting reports, typically leading to highly promising projections.

“Xander really impressed in 2011 by making adjustments at the plate and in the field during his first season in the States,” Red Sox director of player development Ben Crockett said. “He shows athleticism in everything he does and can really impact the baseball to all fields, something uncommon for a player of his age and development time. He continues to improve his overall approach at the plate while refining his defensive fundamentals at shortstop, both things that repetition will help ingrain.”

Other sources concur that Bogaerts made strides in his plate approach, but some scouts feel he will be pushed to improve his pitch recognition as he climbs the organizational ladder. As of now, he’s still overaggressive at the plate --– most of his strikeouts come as a result of chasing breaking balls and elevated fastballs. And given how much development he has in front of him, it's just as likely that he never makes it past Double-A as that he becomes a major league All-Star.

Scouts also rave about Bogaerts’ maturity and effort level. One source indicates that he regularly participated in a strict regimen of additional individual workouts on top of mandatory team workouts, including consistently staying late to run extra wind sprints in 100-degree weather during the dog days of August.

In terms of defense, he has demonstrated a slightly above-average arm and good hands, but his footwork is rough and he needs to slow down his game. Many scouts have projected that he could end up moving to left field or third base, especially if he fills out his frame a lot more. But both Bogaerts and Crockett see him sticking at shortstop for the foreseeable future.

“In terms of long-term projection, we have been impressed by the strides he's made at shortstop in a short period of time,” Crockett said. “We have no plans to move him.”

“I grew up playing shortstop and I’d like to continue playing shortstop in professional ball,” Bogaerts said. “But I would play anywhere as long as I'm in the lineup. Shortstop is a difficult position, but I think I get where I need to be with more training.”

Bogaerts has centered his training this offseason on his defense and continued conditioning, but he also got some great experience with the Netherlands national team, which took home the gold medal in the 2011 Baseball World Cup (Aruba is an autonomous territory of the Netherlands).

“I’ve been working out a lot in the gym this offseason, doing a lot of running and working to improve my defense,” Bogaerts said. “I've been in Aruba for most of the offseason because I played with the Dutch World Cup team -- the champion Dutch World Cup team.”

In 2012, Bogaerts hopes to incorporate more athleticism into his game while keeping his mind in the right place.

“I want to use my speed more in the coming season, in addition to improving my defense,” Bogaerts said. “Also, I have to always remember that the mental part of the game is very important. Playing this game, you're going to fail a lot. And you have to be able to deal with it.”

When spring training rolls around and the Sox take the field at JetBlue Park in the coming weeks, it will be intriguing to see how Bogaerts is maturing physically in order to project whether he’s indeed going to be able to stick at shortstop or whether he’ll outgrow the position. At the outset of the 2012 season, Bogaerts will be on the cusp for a promotion to High-A Salem, but it’s just as likely that he starts the season back with Greenville.

Either way, expect for the 19-year-old to spend all or most of the season in A-ball, with an eye toward a major league spring training invitation and an assignment to Double-A in 2013.

Righthanded reliever Scott Atchison, who was designated for assignment Jan. 26, has cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple A Pawtucket, and will be invited to major league camp.

Atchison, who split time with the Red Sox and PawSox in 2011, had a 3.26 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings with Boston. In 2010, Atchison had a 4.50 ERA in 43 appearances.

BOSTON -- And then there was one.

The Red Sox came to terms with pitcher Alfredo Aceves on a one-year deal, thus avoiding arbitration. Aceves gets $1.2 million, less than the midpoint of the figures exchanged by the sides, according to a team source. Aceves had been seeking $1.6 million; the Red Sox had offered $950,000.

The team's only arbitration-eligible player still unsigned is designated hitter David Ortiz, who Saturday told ESPNdeportes that he was still hopeful of avoiding an arbitration hearing.

"I'm just working hard and working out to get ready for the spring. I really would like to get this over with so that we don't have to go in front of the judge and I can stop having to talk about this," Ortiz said.

Aceves' contract includes $100,000 in performance clauses based on starts or appearances, the source said. The language in the contract addressed both starts and appearances because it remains uncertain what role Aceves will fill for the Red Sox this season.

The plan on the eve of spring training is for Aceves to compete for a spot in the starting rotation, but it's well within the realm of possibility that Aceves could return to the bullpen if manager Bobby Valentine decides one of the other pitchers competing for a starting role -- someone like Vicente Padilla, Carlos Silva, Aaron Cook or Andrew Miller -- wins the job.

Aceves was 10-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 55 appearances for the Red Sox and ranked as one of Theo Epstein's best signings last winter. The Yankees, Aceves' previous employer, offered him only a minor league, nonguaranteed deal after he pitched little in 2010 because of back problems.

The Boston Globe first reported the Aceves agreement.

The Washington Nationals have reached an agreement on a one-year deal with free agent pitcher Edwin Jackson, who had also been targeted by the Boston Red Sox.

Jackson, 28, is 60-60 with a 4.46 ERA in 10 seasons with Tampa Bay, the Dodgers, the White Sox, Arizona, St. Louis and Detroit. He was one of the top two free agent pitchers still available on the market along with Roy Oswalt.

BOSTON -- When Bobby Valentine was hired to manage in Japan, he said he eased up a little on the punishing routines normally followed by Japanese teams in spring training.

“I took out the 6:30 a.m. two-mile walk,’’ said Valentine, who managed the Chiba Lotte Marines. “They did it anyway.’’

There will be no predawn walks in Fort Myers for the Red Sox this spring. Any big league manager would be inviting mutiny by implementing something like that.

But Valentine said he plans to arrive at the Fort on Feb. 12, a week before the official report date for pitchers and catchers, and said Wednesday night he has plans to conduct a “volunteer” workout on Feb. 16. He said Jon Lester and Andrew Bailey both told him they’d be headed down in the next few days; Ryan Lavarnway earlier had said he planned to arrive Wednesday.

General manager Ben Cherington plans to arrive at the Sox spring facility ahead of Valentine, pulling into town sometime next week.

Any question that the new management team is eager to get started?

“Everything is going to be so new, like the Japan situation,’’ said Valentine, who in Boston will be starting with a club in spring training, unlike his previous tours in Texas and New York, where he was hired as manager in season.

The Sox go into the spring with decisions to be made in the outfield, shortstop, bullpen and starting rotation, a much more unsettled picture than they have faced going into camp in previous years.

“It’s a difficult competition place,’’ Valentine said. “That a guy is going to win a position [in spring training] is a misnomer.’’

But there will be plenty of evaluation going on, a process, Valentine said, that puts little stock in results. “You make sure you’re not fooled by results,’’ he said.

Following up on a comment he made earlier in the week, Valentine said he’s not big on the concept of platoons, but is not averse to players sharing positions. That appears to be a possibility in both right field and short.

“I don’t like to limit my players,’’ he said. “I don’t say, ‘Hey, he’s only going to hit against right-handers,' even though that sometimes is how it works out."

Valentine has been working “nonstop,” Cherington said, familiarizing himself with the team.

“I’ve been reading a lot,’’ Valentine said. “I’m tired of reading.’’

His overall view of the club:

“I like what we have,’’ he said. “I don’t think it’s anything like a finished product.’’

And it’s useful to remember this, he said:

“Sometimes you make the wrong decision. But it’s never the end of the world in April.’’

Cherington noted Wednesday that he had not met with free agent pitcher Roy Oswalt, unlike the Rangers, who met with him Monday, and said it was “unlikely” that the club would add another starting pitcher before the start of camp.

Another major league source had said Wednesday that the Red Sox were most likely out of the picture for free agent pitcher Edwin Jackson too.

"We have some questions to answer. Hopefully we'll get some of those answers in spring training," he said Wednesday. "We may not get all of them answered in spring training. We may have more work to do as we get into the season, evaluate and see how guys respond. The roster may evolve over the course of the season, as has been the case with every team."

After indicating late Friday night that pitcher Roy Oswalt was signing with the St. Louis Cardinals "soon," the same major league source acknowledged Wednesday that Oswalt had not yet made a decision and that the Red Sox still "had a great chance" of signing him.

A Red Sox source confirmed Wednesday that the team had not abandoned hopes of signing Oswalt, indicating that the 34-year-old right-hander may have a better chance at a regular turn starting with Boston than with the other two clubs, both of whom appear to have filled their rotations.

The Cardinals and Rangers, however, have the advantage of being closer to Oswalt's Mississippi home, the Red Sox source said. Oswalt's agent, Bob Garber, had been quoted Saturday as saying that Oswalt would not take a bullpen job.

"I'm not sure anybody but (Oswalt), his family and his agent know what he's going to do,'' the Red Sox source said.

UPDATE: Speaking to reporters Wednesday night before a "town hall" meeting at Worcester Technical High School taped for airing Thursday on NESN, GM Ben Cherington said that unlike the Rangers, he has had no meetings with Oswalt.

"I wouldn't rule out adding a starter,'' he said, "but it's unlikely at this point.''

The Boston Red Sox have made an offer but are “most likely out of the picture” for Edwin Jackson, the top starting pitcher remaining on the free-agent market, because there are better deals on the table from other clubs, according to a baseball source.

Boston’s offer to Jackson was for one year and between $5 million and $6 million, according to the Boston Globe. Jackson has said from the get-go that he was seeking a multi-year deal.

The 28-year-old Jackson, a Scott Boras client, was 12-9 with a 3.79 ERA last season, which was split between the Chicago White Sox and Cardinals.

CHICAGO -- Commissioner Bud Selig will decide what compensation the Boston Red Sox will receive for Theo Epstein's move to the Chicago Cubs.

Epstein left as Boston's general manager with a year left on his contract to become president of baseball operations for the Cubs.

Epstein got a five-year, $18.5 million deal in late October. But the two teams have not been able to agree on compensation, and now it's up to Selig.

Selig said Friday night he'd like to have it done as quickly as possible. He said he gave the clubs more latitude in hopes they'd reach an agreement, but they couldn't. Selig said now it's his decision and that's OK, all part of the job.

Free-agent pitcher Roy Oswalt has elected to remain in the National League and is likely to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals "soon," a major league source said late Friday night.

Presumably, any agreement would be pending a physical for Oswalt, who has a history of back problems.

"It's not yet 100 percent," the source said.

Oswalt, one of the last of the big-name free agents still on the market, had been ardently pursued by the Boston Red Sox, among others. Another team reportedly in the mix for Oswalt was the Texas Rangers, while CBSSports.com reported late Friday night that Oswalt had rejected an offer from the Detroit Tigers.

The Red Sox last Saturday traded shortstop Marco Scutaro to Colorado Rockies to free up money for other moves, one of which was the signing of free-agent outfielder Cody Ross last week. They had targeted Oswalt, 34, once he made it known he would be willing to accept a one-year deal, but Oswalt, who spent the first 9 1/2 seasons of his career with the Houston Astros before going to the Phillies in a trade-deadline deal in 2010, apparently preferred to remain in the National League.

Back problems have plagued Oswalt for the past several seasons, although he still managed to make 23 starts for the Phillies last season, posting a 9-10 record and 3.69 ERA.

Red Sox sources have indicated they expect to re-engage the Chicago White Sox in trade talks for right-hander Gavin Floyd, who according to one White Sox source is available for the right package of prospects. So far, the Red Sox have not made a proposal satisfactory to GM Kenny Williams.

A long-shot possibility remains Edwin Jackson, the last significant starting pitcher remaining on the market. Jackson had not been on Boston's radar at the outset of the winter because of his desire for a multiyear deal, but the Red Sox have been in touch with agent Scott Boras on a possible one-year deal. As of earlier Friday, the Sox had not made an offer for Jackson.

Read more HERE.

BOSTON -- Free agent pitcher Roy Oswalt will not be choosing a new team Friday night, a major league source said, even as reports surfaced that the life-long National Leaguer is leaning toward signing with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Red Sox “are still in the mix,’’ the source said. Boston had made Oswalt a prime target, especially after freeing up salary by trading shortstop Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies last week. Team sources have indicated that the Sox would shift their attentions to acquiring right-hander Gavin Floyd from the White Sox if they fail to land Oswalt. The White Sox are seeking prospects in return, but to date their asking price has been too high.

A longshot possibility remains free-agent right-hander Edwin Jackson, especially if he is willing to sign a one-year deal. But the Sox so far have balked at Jackson’s price, after calling the one-year, $10 million deal signed by free-agent right-hander Hiroki Kuroda “too rich” for their tastes.

Oswalt's decision is likely within the next 24 to 48 hours.