Is the Sox's rotation set without Lowe

Yesterday rumors circulated that the Mets were falling behind in the Derek Lowe sweepstakes. The other teams involved seemed to be the Phillies, Braves, Red Sox and Brewers. As of last night the Braves made it clear that Lowe would have to take even less then our offer to join Atlanta and I posted that the Phillies still don't seem like a fit. So what about the Sox's, are they really in on Lowe as we're lead to believe, well I've scoured the Boston blogs and papers and unlike NY there isn't very much buzz about interest in Lowe at all. In fact, Brad Penny appears to have filled their needs in the rotation and signing Lowe would go against several of their philosophies.

Penny is the type of potentially low-cost, high-ceiling signing the Sox love. Instead of delving into the large contracts for free agent pitchers that so often don't work - see: Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, Carl Pavano - Boston would prefer to augment its young and established talent with short-term deals. And that is what the Penny signing gives the Sox, though they still could add another low-cost starter. source Boston Globe

For the Sox, Penny’s arrival promises to fill the hole that developed with Curt Schilling’s injury last pre-season. Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester, Penny, and Wakefield sets up to be as solid a Starting 5 as any, and with a number of other ‘names’ around him, Penny can relax into his role without having to feel he must carry the load. source Boston Baseball Examiner

So just like the Phillies lets see if there's room for another starter....

Josh Beckett- 10.5M
Daisuke Matsuzaka - 8M
Brad Penny- 5M ( 3M of which in incentive bonuses)
Tim Wakefield- 4M
Jon Lester - 0.442M / controlled player
Clay Buchholz - 0.396M / controlled player

The Sox definitely have more flexibility then the Phillies but they still have five starters with Buchholz in AAA and Justin Masterson remaining in the pen. I can't see them signing Lowe and putting Lester in the minors. They are rumored to be looking at John Smoltz on a one year deal who could work out of the pen and then start if an injury arose and Buchholz struggled. They have also been rumored to be looking into Siato if he was their set-up man Masterson could go to AAA to stretch his arm out as a starter again. Last year payroll was 133M and that was not including the 51M posting fee for Dice K.