John Lackey is the nominal ace of a playoff bound team. If he escapes the Angels, he will be overpaid by some struggling mid to upper market team looking to make a splash.
I'd say out best bets to pick up a quality free agent starter are the injured guys who might come here because of our reputation for keeping people healthy.
One name to throw out here that I haven't seen yet is Justin Duchscherer. He could be useful in a swing role without necessarily committing ourselves to a rotation spot. I could see signing him for a bullpen role and letting him try out in Spring as a starter. You could bring a guy like that in and still bring in another full time SP like Bedard, and let Ducscherer try to pitch long relief to be ready for if/when Bedard breaks down