Over the winter, the Red Sox addressed major needs in their starting rotation (David Price), upgraded their bullpen (Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith) and improved their outfield depth (Chris Young).
Those moves -- coupled with the mixture of veteran talent (Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and core of young stars (Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts) have made the Red Sox favorites to win the division.
Still, there remains two significant question marks, anchoring the corners of the club's infield. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval and newly-relocated first baseman Hanley Ramirez must rebound from poor 2015 seasons for the Red Sox to be successful.
"Our players that are returning are equally important to all of the headlines grabbed by the free agents,'' said manager John Farrell last month. "And Hanley and Pablo are two key components to our lineup, our everyday lineup. [To have them] returning close to their normal performance is going to be huge as far as what this team is able to produce going forward.”
Sandoval's first year with the Red Sox after signing a five-year, $95 million contract was, to put it mildly, disastrous. He reported to camp in poor condition and seemed to grow larger as the season wore on.
At third, his play seemed to suffer from his size, with his range limited. At the plate, Sandoval was woeful from the right side of the plate before giving up on switch-hitting altogether at the end of May.
He displayed little power (just 10 homers and a paltry .366 slugging percentage) and had little impact on the offense.
If possible, Ramirez was an even bigger disappointment. After a roaring start in April (10 homers, .990 OPS), Ramirez slumped precipitiously with the bat, limited by injuries to both shoulders.
It was in the outfield, however, that Ramirez did the most damage. After committing to changing positions and putting in the required work in spring training, Ramirez seemed to give up on the idea and his play in left field suffered.
Defensive metrics showed Ramirez to be among the worst defenders -- regardless of position -- in the game. It was perhaps not entirely coincidental that the team's play improved considerable in the final seven weeks, most of which coincided with Ramirez's absence.
Now, the two return for a second season with the Red Sox.
Farrell visited with both in south Florida in January to check on their progress and conditioning.
For Sandoval, the Red Sox directed him to drop some weight and report to camp lighter. Farrell liked what he saw and sensed a desire on Sandoval's part to make amends for a poor first season in Boston.
“[Pablo] was candid in his desire to get into better shape for the upcoming season,'' said Farrell. "He wants to prove to people he was worthy of his deal.”
For Sandoval, the focus isn't solely on what he looks like when he reports to Fort Myers. Sandoval, who has battled excess weight for much of his major league career, has had a habit of starting the season in improved physical condition, only to have the weight slowly return over the course of the season.
Sandoval isn't being counted on to carry the offense, but it would be a major boost if he could deliver some pop to the bottom half of the order, while upgrading his play at third.
Ramirez plays a more central role in the Red Sox' offense, likely hitting fifth behind Ortiz. It's not realistic for Ramirez to continue to produce for an entire season the way he did last April, but the Sox surely need far more from him than the .644 OPS he posted from May 1 until his season was cut short in August.
The Sox asked Ramirez to streamline his upper body, ridding himself of some of the added muscle from a year ago, to help Ramirez become more athletic again.
Here, too, Farrell has liked the results in the off-season, noting that Ramirez was trimmer during a January visit.
But there remains the question of how well Ramirez will adapt to first, and more specifically, how willing he is to work at it the transition. A year ago, Ramirez said all the right things about moving to the outfield, but didn't back up the talk with enough work.
Recently, Ramirez offered that the move to first would be "easy,'' since it's a return to the infield. And indeed, Ramirez is capable of fielding ground balls from his time at short.
But what about learning the footwork necessary to play first? Or learning about cutoffs and other nuanced parts of the position? Ultimately, Ramirez must demonstrate that he's willing and able to put in the time to learn the position.
And if Ramirez doesn't become at least somewhat proficient in handling low throws from his infielders, he could adversely affect Sandoval, Bogaerts and Pedroia.
"He’ll get a full 45 days of work or 45 available days to work on the transition to first base," Farrell said.
What he does with that time may go a long way in determining how competitive the Red Sox are in 2016.