Red Sox still interested in Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda has gone 41-46 with a 3.45 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers since coming to the majors in 2008. Now he's a free agent and WEEI.com reports that the Boston Red Sox "have remained interested" in signing the 36-year-old, but his price will likely be too high.

The site notes that Kuroda is "open to pitching on the East Coast" and has gotten interest from Boston and the New York Yankees. The word is that Kuroda would like to get a one- or two-year deal worth around $12 million or $13 million annually, a price that would put the Sox over their budget, the site notes.

"I think that the starters that we've considered and talked about, and in some cases pursued, are a pretty broad range of pitching options," Sox GM Ben Cherington said, according to the site. "We've just felt, to this point, that the deals that we liked the best on the trade front were the [Mark] Melancon deal and now this deal. We're going to continue to work. We're actively considering and looking at starting pitching options also, but we haven't found one yet where we feel like the acquisition cost is the right one. That doesn't mean that it won't come. It just hasn't come yet."

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