The Sox acquired 26 year-old RHP David Aardsma from the Chicago White Sox, in return for RHPs Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich (both were A-prospects in the Sox farm system). Aardsma split his time last year between the White Sox and AAA - after roaring out of the gate at the beginning of the season (he was 2-0, 1.31 with 26 strikeouts in 20.2 innings in his first 14 appearances through May 12), he hit a wall, and had a handful of really bad outings. He finished up the year fairly strong in AAA- but was DFA'ed when the White Sox acquired Octavio Dotel, to free up a roster slot on the 40-man.

The tricky thing with Aardsma is that he is out of options. So he'll need to make the Red Sox 40-man roster-- or he'll be DFA'ed by the Red Sox in order to be assigned to the minor leagues (and every club would have a chance to claim him). Then again, he was DFA'ed by the White Sox, and fell all the way down to the Red Sox, so chances are he wouldn't be claimed the second time around, either. Word on the street from my White Sox buds is that his fall off this past year was mostly due to a confidence problem - not a stuff problem. Which gives me some hope that Farrell and co. might be able to fix him back up. He'd likely be competing Bryan Corey and Kyle Snyder for the final bullpen roster spot.

Fun fact: Look at the alphabetical listing of all baseball players in the major leagues (see: Baseball Almanac or Baseball Reference, for example)... David Aardsma is number one. When he broke into the show in 2004, he displaced Hank Aaron off the top of the list.