FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s only mid-February and free agents remain on the market, many now steeply discounted. It\u2019s quite possible, then, that the Red Sox could still add a reliever or two or another depth piece before Opening Day.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s safe to assume that most of the heavy lifting (and spending) is complete. A roster rebuild that began last fall is close to completion.<\/p>\n
It can be said that the Red Sox <\/a>took a circuitous route to get here. In the first week of October, during their post-mortem in the aftermath of a first-round elimination at the hands of the Yankees, the Red Sox identified starting pitching and power as two elements they would look to add.<\/p>\n They went .500 in their efforts.<\/p>\n Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow added a total of three starters, something few executives can claim. Sonny Gray <\/a>and Ranger Suarez, neither of whom can be classified as aces, are nonetheless All-Star-caliber starters. A third pick-up, Johan Oviedo, is, at the very least, a talented arm with remaining upside.<\/p>\n There\u2019s little doubt that the rotation is improved from a year ago, especially with a return to full health for depth optons Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sondoval and the presence of elite prospects Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.<\/p>\n But when it came to addressing their power deficiency, the Red Sox fell far short. First baseman Willson Contreras is a solid offensive presence, but has never hit as many as 25 homers in a season while infielder Caleb Durbin is more of a bat-to-ball weapon.<\/p>\n On a strictly binary basis, the Red Sox lost 27 homers by not retaining Alex Bregman and Rob Refsnyder while importing 31 (20 from Contreras and 11 from Durbin).<\/p>\n That hardly qualifies as an offensive makeover.<\/p>\n Eschewing other power options on the market \u2014 the team barely bothered to compete for power sources like Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber \u2014 the Red Sox shifted gears after losing out on Bregman and, unable to find attractive offensive weapons remaining on the market, instead pursued a strategy that was more focused on run prevention.<\/p>\n Bolstering the rotation was only part of the equation; the Red Sox wisely realized that a better collection of starters wouldn\u2019t be enough to overcome the shoddy infield defense that marked the team\u2019s play for the last handful of seasons.<\/p>\n A year ago, the Red Sox led all of baseball in errors and in the American League, only three teams had a worse defensive efficiency rating (measuring the rate at which batted balls are converted into outs).<\/p>\n In an abrupt about-face, the Red Sox, having already acquired Contreras, a slick-fielding first baseman, moved to land two infielders in the last few weeks to better their defense.<\/p>\n