FORT MYERS, Fla. — Today, the pitchers and catchers of the 2011 Red Sox gather for their first workout of the season. It is a group that takes the field anticipating great success this year, the battery that powers a team expected to bring autumn baseball back to Boston.

After an offseason shopping spree that brought Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to town, the Red Sox don’t have a lot of question marks surrounding them here on the sunny Gulf Coast.

You can pretty safely predict the team’s starters. There aren’t many reserve spots available. The starting rotation is set. In the bullpen, the key spots are filled.

We know Jonathan Papelbon will be the closer, despite his (relative) struggles in 2010. Daniel Bard is emerging as one of the best setup men in the game, and Bobby Jenks checked his ego and closer’s title at the door when he signed as a free agent to give the team another late-inning option.

New Englander Dan Wheeler has appeared in more than 500 big-league games, and brings experience to the team’s middle relief.

Tim Wakefield, 13 wins shy of tying Cy Young and Roger Clemens for the most wins in team history, will have a spot as long reliever/spot starter.

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That’s five right-handed relievers you can pencil into the 2011 roster, and that means there are two more spots available. There are eight relief pitchers on the 40-man roster battling for those spots, and some six more non-roster invitees hoping to pitch their way onto the team’s radar screen.

At least one of the two spots will go to a lefty. The choices are Hideki Okajima, Felix Doubront, Rich Hill, Andrew Miller, Dennys Reyes and Ricky Williams.

Okajima has been one of the team’s most vital relievers over the past four years, but is coming off his worst big-league season. The Sox did not tender him a contract, allowing him to become a free agent, before signing him to a more reasonable contract in January.

The team is hoping Okajima, who posted a 1.54 ERA in 112/3 September innings, can regain his form pitching fewer innings.

With Papelbon, Bard and Jenks doing the heavy late-inning lifting, Okajima can concentrate on facing left-handed hitters. Last year, they put up an OPS (on base plus slugging percentage) that was .204 lower than righties against Okajima.

The left-handed reliever that could be the camp’s most intriguing story is Miller. He was the sixth overall pick out of North Carolina in the 2006 draft, but struggled mightily pitching for Florida last year. The Sox believe he can bounce back from a season that saw him put up an 8.54 ERA in nine appearances with the Marlins in 2010, but he might need time to get there. Okajima, and pitchers like Hill (four scoreless innings late last season with the Sox) will allow the team to be patient with Miller.

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It would also let them take their time with Doubront, the 23-year-old who pitched well in relief last season. He still projects to be a starter in the long term, and if the team doesn’t need to rush him to the big leagues he’ll be able to continue his development by pitching in Pawtucket.

At the end of last season, the Sox knew they would need a bullpen overhaul. It remains to be seen if the remodeling will be a success, but Manager Terry Francona already has more options than he had in 2010.

Pretty impressive, considering those pitchers are working out for the first time as a group today.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.

 


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