"Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez met the media at Fenway Park yesterday, and it wasn't hard to envision him in a Red Sox uniform.

Jimenez was the prize of the trade deadline. As the days passed without the former Colorado Rockies right-hander changing addresses, he seemed inexorably headed to a city like Boston.

But yesterday he instead wore the blue and red of the Cleveland Indians, who shocked the rest of baseball by acquiring the ace before Sunday's deadline.

"At first I was surprised," Jimenez said. "I heard so many rumors in the last two weeks, I didn't know where I was going to end up. When I found out it was Cleveland I was excited, especially considering the way they've been playing."

The Red Sox were interested in Jimenez, 27, and discussed him with the Rockies, but the teams didn't match up well on the prospect front. Colorado wanted a big league ready starter in return, as well as another top pitching prospect, as the foundation of a deal.

The Sox meanwhile, had traded away the player who best fit that description, righty Casey Kelly, in the deal with the San Diego Padres over the winter that brought in first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. To make a trade with the Rockies work with position prospects, the Sox were going to have to surrender even more than Cleveland did, starting with Double-A third baseman Will Middlebrooks, and they weren't willing to go that far, even for a pitcher as talented as Jimenez."