Great news Red Sox Nation, the Red Sox have signed Cody Ross to a 1 year contract that should be worth right around $3 million. Ross mashes lefties and should fill the Red Sox RF hole very nicely. It’svery possible we could see a Kalish/Ross platoon later on in the season.

Cody Ross won the Championship Series MVP for the Giants in 2010 and has a career slash line of .240/.325/.405 and a career slash against lefties of .282/.349/.563. He is expected to greatly outperform the production the Red Sox had in right field last season and seems like a great clubhouse guy. The Red Sox sure need as many of those as they can get.

This leaves the door open to a possible Roy Oswalt signing/Gavin Floyd trade in the near future. After trading Marco Scutaro the Red Sox freed payroll so they could land Cody Ross and possibly a #4/5 starter for the 2012 season.

2011 was a terrible year for Carl Crawford. 2012 is starting off even worse.

A recent MRI revealed cartilage damage in Crawford’s left wrist. He underwent arthroscopic wrist surgery today for the second time in his career.

“We’re not going to put a timeline on his recovery” General Manager Ben Cherington said. “But we’re optimistic Carl will be progressing in baseball activities as we get into spring training and be in a position to be active and our left fielder in our lineup for the bulk of the regular season.”

Mike Sweeney, Darnell McDonald and Mike Aviles are expected to share time in both Left and Right field in Crawford’s absense.

The Red Sox and former Dodger Vincente Padilla have agreed to a minor league deal. It includes a spring training invite and it seems like he could have a decent shot at landing a spot in the rotation. Padilla, who is 34 years old and entering his 13th major league season, pitched 8.2 innings for the Dodgers last year with a 4.15 ERA. He has a career ERA of 4.31 and 104 career wins.

According to MLBTradeRumors.com Padilla has been hitting the upper 90s in velocity in his short stint in winter ball in Nicaragua. This is a great sign for the Red Sox, as they have very little budget flexibility and are looking to fill out the rotation the best that they can within their budget constraints.

Many will laugh at this signing, citing the Red Sox desperateness for a reliable starter for the rotation, but we must remember that this same thing happened to the Yankees last year. The Yankees signed Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia both to minor league deals, and not many thought they would even be solid contributors to the team. But they both hurled a combined 307 innings for the Yankees, and both pitched above league average as well.

The most important thing to remember is that this is a low risk, medium reward type deal for the Red Sox. Worst case scenario, Padilla spends the year in AAA and doesn’t cost us a dime. Best case scenario, he becomes a reliable #5 starter for us and eats up innings. Either way, it’s not a bad move. Red Sox nation relax, all will be well. (hopefully)