Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine didn’t sound overly impressed Saturday when assessing the Yankees’ quick-strike addition of Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda to their rotation.

“They’re probably an upgrade from (Bartolo) Colon and (Freddy) Garcia,” Valentine told the Providence Journal at a Jimmy Fund event in Boston. “Probably. I don’t know. It seems it.”

In his first season in the majors last season, the 22-year-old phenom Pineda was 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA and 173 strikeouts in 171 innings for the Mariners. The 39-year-old Kiroda was 13-16 with a 3.07 ERA for the Dodgers last season.

“Pineda, when I saw him the first half, he looked unhittable. Second half, he looked OK,” said Valentine. “(The Mariners) saw a lot of him and they traded him.

“Kuroda is a good pitcher -- a year older than he was last year, pitching in the American League and not the National League, pitching in not a great pitcher’s ballpark (Yankee Stadium) from a great pitcher’s ballpark (Dodger Stadium).”

Valentine did make a couple of valid points there: Pineda had a 3.03 ERA and eight wins before the All-Star break and a 5.12 ERA and just one win after it; and Kiroda has a career 3-8 record and 4.33 ERA against American League opponents.

One thing Valentine couldn’t argue was the Yankees’ rotation certainly got a lot deeper. They now have CC Sabathia, Kuroda, Pineda, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia and A.J. Burnett as quality starters. The Sox, on the other hand, have Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz and question marks. John Lackey will miss the season after Tommy John surgery and Daisuke Matsuzaka is unlikely to pitch before July after having the same procedure. Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves will be stretched out as starters in spring training, with at least Bard a good bet to join the rotation.

“The only problem with writing it down right now, or having a big NESN special about our pitching, is we can’t say anything is definitive with maybe half the pitching staff,” Valentine told the Boston Herald. “That doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s just not finished.”

“I think we have a good team,” Valentine said. "If we can continue to add to it as the season progresses, when we see what our needs are, when we see what any strengths or weaknesses are, I think we’ll be fine. But when you have a core like we have, and that core is healthy, I don’t think there’s any rush to do anything before we at least see the team in spring training, see the group, see how people are working together.”