$4m (with $1m in IP incentives) is not exactly chump change, especially for a guy who is (a) coming off significant surgery, (b) whose fastball declined from an average of 97.8mph in 2009 to 95.3mph in 2010 to 94.1 mph in 2011, and (c) whose swinging strike rate declined in those same three years from 14.5% to 11.1% to 8.6%. The Red Sox have the added problem of needing to prioritize starting pitching and the Ortiz situation while working with a fairly tight de facto luxury tax spending limit.

It's not a terrible signing given his upside (especially if the medicals check out and he had been pitching hurt), but it's not like it's significantly below-market or anything like that. When you combine that with the particular needs of this team and how early Broxton wanted to be signed, I don't think it is some great shame that the Red Sox were unwilling to commit this much money to Broxton this early in FA.