NASHVILLE -- Two years ago, the Red Sox were stressing "run prevention" as the best approach to winning.
But in the last two-and-a-half weeks, in what would seem to be a dramatic turn from that philosophy, the Red Sox have signed two free agents who are anything but defensive standouts.
First, there was outfielder Jonny Gomes, who is seen -- by scouts, and by the advanced statistical metrics -- as a decidedly subpar defender. Then, Monday, the first day of the winter meetings, the Sox added Mike Napoli, who is a below-average catcher and barely adequate as a first baseman.
"It's important to be strong defensively at certain spots in the field," said GM Ben Cherington, "certainly up the middle more importantly than anywhere else. We're trying to strike that balance. We'd love to have nine guys who are Triple Crown winners and Gold Glove winners, but it doesn't work that way.
"We want to prevent runs, but we want to score runs, too. And we didn't do that well last year, relative to what our standards have been."
Indeed, from 2002 through 2010, the Red Sox never scored fewer than 800 runs in a season. Three times in that span -- from 2003 through 2005 -- they scored in excess of 900 runs.
But in finishing last in the A.L. East in 2012, the Red Sox scored a paltry 734 runs, a dropoff of 141 from the year before, or nearly an average of one per game.
Boston Red Sox
To build the offense back up, the Sox are apparently willing to sacrifice some defense. To date, they've done so at two positions which are hardly premium defensive spots -- left field and first base.
Gomes can probably be hidden in left -- at least at Fenway, where the area to cover is small and the Wall sends balls caroming back to the outfielder. Similarly, it's relatively simple to make the basic plays at first base.
But Napoli won't cover nearly as much ground as Adrian Gonzalez did the previous two seasons, or as much as Gonzalez's short-term replacement for the last five weeks of 2012, James Loney.
The Sox can at least take some comfort in the fact they'll have plus defenders in the middle of the diamond. Dustin Pedroia is above average at second, as is Jacoby Ellsbury in center. Moreover, if they give the shortstop job to Jose Iglesias, the Sox will have their best defensive player at that position in years.
The hope is that those three will make up for the limited range and ability of Gomes and Napoli.
As Cherington noted, it's impossible to staff the roster with perfect, well-rounded players at every position. With Gomes and Napoli, the Sox have valued offense -- and character.
Gomes is a leader who uses humor to keep a clubhouse loose. Napoli is quieter, but Tampa Bay manger Joe Maddon, who served as bench coach for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim when Napoli was there, labeled the first baseman-catcher a "man's man" Monday.
Cherington said the Sox are making a conscious effort to improve the clubhouse with strong character players. But they need to contribute beyond that.
"If we try to just bring in good guys," said Cherington, "then we'll have a lot of good guys and lose a lot of games. They have to have talent, too, and help you on the field. That's what we're trying to do.
"Hopefully, the guys we've brought in so far fit both of those categories. We're trying to build a team and doing that in Boston is a little bit different than doing it in other places because there's more attention along the way. So you can't stay under the radar. We know what we're going to go through. We want guys we're confident can handle that and we're confident the guys we've added this offseason can."