The Red Sox are in serious discussions with Ryan Dempster, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). He cautions that there is no deal yet and the LSW Baseball client could still sign elsewhere.

Dempster, 35, pitched to a 3.38 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 173 innings for the Cubs and Rangers last season. His performance did suffer after making the midseason move to the American League (5.09 ERA in 69 innings with Texas). Dempster has thrown at least 170 innings with a 7.7+ K/9 in each of the last five seasons however, one of only four pitchers who can make that claim.

Last week we learned that the veteran right-hander turned down a two-year, $25MM offer from the Red Sox. The Brewers and Royals also have interest. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes ranked Dempster as the 16th best free agent this offseason, predicting he would sign with Milwaukee.