Ever since being drafted out of high school in 2011, Henry Owens has been on the radar of many a prospect-hugging Red Sox fan.  His youth, advanced feel for pitching and strong early performances down in the minors led many to keep an eye on Owens’ progress from day one. And by the end of the 2014 campaign, the tall left-hander had risen all the way to Triple-A off the back of strong strikeout numbers and a widely praised changeup.

With the Red Sox rotation in shambles last season, Owens got his chance once the second half rolled around, making his big-league debut on August 4 against the Yankees. Owens would go on to make 11 starts down the stretch for Boston, and while he didn’t lock down a place in the club’s rotation, he showed flashes of that intriguing talent. However, where Owens goes from here and how much of his potential the team is able to unlock in the coming years are questions that remain unanswered.

What Went Right in 2015

Although his overall results don’t look impressive at first glance, Owens does have some positives to build on from his first major league campaign.  He finished with a 4.57 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 18.4% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate over 63 innings pitched. Most encouragingly, Owens showed he could generate swings and misses with frequency, recording a 12.2% swinging-strike rate that would have ranked among the top starters in MLB if he had the innings to qualify. Indeed, as Alex Speier wrote during the season, Owens’ knack for limiting contact put him in some pretty exclusive company last summer.

In addition, Owens’ changeup proved to be the same type of dominant weapon it was in the minors.  The 23-year-old used the offering 23.9% of the time in the big leagues and held opponents to a .222 average against the pitch. Owens’ changeup was key to his ability to garner strikeouts, moreover, with the offering yielding a 23% whiff rate and a 44% whiff per swing rate, the highest of all his pitches, according to Brooks Baseball.

What Went Wrong in 2015

Inconsistent command has long been Owens’ biggest stumbling block, and that continued during his time in the majors. Owens hands out his fair share of free passes (he walked at least four hitters in four separate outings), though his tendency to leave his fastball up in the zone is perhaps more worrisome. When Owens fails to keep his fastball down, big league hitters demonstrated that they can take advantage of his middling velocity. Boston’s young lefty will have to be far sharper with his command against MLB competition in a way he rarely was down in the minors.

In fact, improving his overall consistency will be the main objective for Owens moving forward. On a couple of occasions, he showed the capacity to dominate major league lineups with his advanced four-pitch mix and deception (most notably in an eight-inning, one-run effort against the Royals), but he was also knocked around plenty as well. Finding ways to battle through outings when he doesn’t have his best stuff will be vital for Owens.

Outlook for 2016

What Owens needs – steady reps against MLB hitters – could be hard to come by in 2016. With Joe Kelly expected to fill the No. 5 spot in the team’s rotation, Owens is likely to begin the year in Triple-A. Yet how much he will actually benefit from more time down in the minors is uncertain.

There’s plenty to like about Owens, and he certainly has the raw ingredients to turn into a capable starter. Nevertheless, he also has a fair deal of development ahead of him, and he’d be best served doing so against competition that will force him to tighten that shaky command.

If any injuries strike the starting staff, Owens will likely be the first in line to fill in for the Red Sox. This coming season will be a big one for Owens, and could provide the type of platform from which to start a successful career if he gets enough opportunities. Whether that career ends up blossoming in Boston or somewhere else is a question yet to be answered.

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On the other hand, hardly any ink has been spilled on the club’s offense this winter, and judging by the Red Sox’s moves, Dave Dombrowski saw little need to bolster the lineup. The signing of Chris Young to a two-year, $13 million contract — to serve as a platoon option and fourth outfielder — is the only notable move for a bat that Boston has made this offseason.

On the surface, Dombrowski’s decision to focus intently on improving the team’s pitching makes sense. The Red Sox scored the fourth-most runs in baseball a year ago, but the pitching … well, let’s avoid any unnecessary trips down memory lane.

Nevertheless, despite receiving less scrutiny, Boston’s offense will enter 2016 needing to answer plenty of questions in its own right. The most obvious uncertainty exists in the outfield, where the club’s young triumvirate of Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney Castillo should do just fine defensively but are far from guaranteed to excel at the plate. While Betts is already penciled in at the top of the lineup, neither Bradley nor Castillo is assured of carrying his own weight offensively. Castillo, especially, proved vulnerable against big league pitching in 2015.

The Red Sox can probably survive if either Bradley or Castillo struggles again (this is partially why the team signed Young, after all), but they’ll be hard-pressed to fill in two holes if both fail to produce. Since the start of 2014, Boston’s outfielders have posted the third-lowest wRC+ in the league and batted just .255/.317/.382. There’s no certainty that trend will improve next season.

Of course Bradley and Castillo are hardly the club’s two most costly question marks on offense. Despite persistent trade speculation, Dombrowski has been unable to deal away high-priced headaches Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Although their track records of success provide some hope for bounce-back campaigns, both players are undoubtedly in the downslope of their careers. Even if their contracts haven’t destroyed Boston’s budget, the squad will still be depending on solid production from the duo.

The real issue when it comes to Hanley and Pablo is how they will perform with the glove moving forward. Ramirez’s disastrous time in left field was well-documented, but Sandoval was hardly better at third base. The Red Sox can’t afford to again play two of the worst defenders in baseball, and last season demonstrated that Ramirez is no guarantee to flourish with a first basemen’s mitt.

What happens if Ramirez and Sandoval again prove to be liabilities on defense? Travis Shaw can provide some security at first base, but Boston has no such luxury in regards to Sandoval, unless they want to hand consistent playing time to Deven Marrero or let Brock Holt play full time.

Beyond these uncertainties, the Red Sox aren’t in line to get sterling production from the catching position. Sure, Blake Swihart showed signs of progress down the stretch last year, but how he fares in his first full season is an open question. Expecting Swihart to simply carry the load if both Ryan Hanigan and Christian Vazquez struggle at the plate is likely wishful thinking.

And while David Ortiz showed any talk of the end was premature in 2015, his ability to keep on bashing home runs with aplomb at the age of 40 is no given.

None of this means the Red Sox are certain to have issues scoring runs next season. Yet while the focus remains largely fixed on the pitching staff, the lineup also has plenty to prove. Unlike 2004, 2007 or 2013, this isn’t a lock to be the type of juggernaut offense that carries the team to the World Series.

As a result, Boston’s front office should be somewhat wary of all the uncertainty up and down the club’s lineup. After all, last year’s team, despite finishing with solid run totals by year’s end, struggled mightily for large parts of the season, most notably in May and June when the team’s hopes of contention fell by the wayside.

The Red Sox lineup shouldn’t endure such scuffles again, largely because of the strides Betts and Xander Bogaerts made last season. In addition, with Price now in town and the bullpen set to vastly improve, Boston doesn’t need to have one of MLB’s best offenses like they were hoping to a year ago. That doesn’t leave the offense without its fair share of potential holes, however, and the outfield and corner infield positions could well become problem spots by mid-season.

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Now set to enter his third season, Castillo is finally in line for a starting job with the big club. Whether that’s good news for the Red Sox is a fair question to ask, especially with another unknown commodity in Jackie Bradley Jr. also primed to start in the outfield.

The truth is we just don’t know what Castillo will contribute in 2016, but Dave Dombrowski and the team’s front office appear determined to find out.

During his brief spells in the majors, Castillo has shown the ability to impact the game defensively but also left much to be desired at the plate (if this also sounds like a good description of Bradley Jr., you’d be right!). What really stands out is how frequently Castillo hits the ball on the ground, or, said another way, how rarely he drives the ball with any authority in the air.

Over 289 plate appearances in 2015, Castillo hit an underwhelming .253/.288/.359, but the real story is that he hit 63.5% of his balls in play on the ground. That groundball rate would have been the highest in all of baseball if Castillo had enough at-bats to qualify, and it really hampered his production with the bat. The Cuban native hit ground balls at a rate similar to slap hitters like Jean Segura and Ben Revere, and while the Red Sox don’t need Castillo to mirror David Ortiz’s power output, they’ll need better offense from him next summer.

As Castillo’s spray chart from 2015 shows, he hit loads of weak ground balls to the left side of the infield and seldom pulled the ball in the air, which isn’t a great recipe for success:

Indeed, such a batted-ball profile speaks to how infrequently Castillo hit the ball hard this past season, and there’s no denying his quality of contact will have to improve moving forward.

Judging by how pitchers approached Castillo last year, it’s pretty clear the book was out on him across the league. Castillo saw hard pitches –four-seamers, sinkers and cutters—nearly 65% of the time, according to Brooks Baseball. As this zone chart shows, opposing hurlers often attacked him inside with their fastballs and challenged him to drive the ball, which he never proved capable of doing on a consistent basis:

If pitchers couldn’t coax a weak groundball out of Castillo with this approach, then they bombarded him with junk away, throwing offspeed and breaking pitches over 50% of the time when ahead in the count against the outfielder, per Brooks Baseball.

This zone chart, of all the offspeed offerings he saw in 2015, paints a clear picture of where opponents took advantage of Castillo. After forcing him to cope with fastballs inside, they regularly changed speeds and location on him later in the count.

If pitchers couldn’t get Castillo to swing and miss at their breaking-ball and offspeed pitches, they could at least count on him to ground out meekly on offerings away and off the plate. For a hitter who rarely provided a threat to drive the ball into the outfield, getting Castillo out became an easy proposition. The disparity in how someone like Mookie Betts performs against inside fastballs and how Castillo struggled with them last season is eye-opening.

This reality doesn’t necessarily doom Castillo, but he’ll have to make some adjustments if he’s going to contribute enough offensively to earn an everyday job. The longer he proves incapable of pulling the ball with authority in the air, the more pitchers will continue to pound him inside with heat and then counter with offspeed stuff away.

What will truly be crucial for Castillo in 2016 is his health. Injuries have kept him off the field far too often the past two years and prevented him from getting enough reps against big league pitching. Many of his struggles could be attributed to this lack of experience, though he must begin to adjust to the strategy of his opposition.

Although Castillo has yet to deliver on that seven-year, $72.5 million contract, you can understand some of the reasons why the Red Sox felt comfortable giving him that deal. His defense has been great when he’s played, and he can handle all three outfield positions. He has plenty of speed, even if that hasn’t translated into stolen bases in the majors. And with his build, it’s easy to see why they projected Castillo would provide at least a little thump with the bat. He has, in fact, shown some power when he’s driven the ball these past couple years.

The problem is those occasions have been few and far between. The challenge for the Red Sox will be getting Castillo to more frequently hit the ball in the air so he can tap into any dormant power more often. With the way pitchers exploited his swing last season, the jury is still out as to whether Castillo will ever be able to do so consistently against MLB competition.

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From the very beginning of his pro career, when the Rays selected him first overall in the 2007 MLB Draft to his initial seasons with Tampa, Price was primed for stardom. That, over eight years later, he remains a bona-fide ace and a pitcher the Red Sox were willing to spend $217 million on demonstrates how dominant—and consistently dominant—he’s been during his career.

Yet Price is by no means the same pitcher he was in those early days with the Rays. The left-hander has evolved throughout his time in MLB, and his approach against opposing hitters has changed, in some ways dramatically.

In many respects, Price has only improved as a pitcher the last few seasons. In terms of what pitchers can control, he’s excelling at career-best levels. Price is striking out more batters and walking fewer than ever before, all while keeping his home-run rate right in line with his career averages.

What really stands out about Price is how few hitters he’s walked the past couple years. Dating back to the start of 2013, he ranks fourth in all of baseball in walk rate (min. 500 IP), and he’s mainly surrounded by starters who don’t fall into the “ace” category on that list, such as Bartolo Colon, Mark Buehrle and Phil Hughes.

At the same time, Price has excelled at limiting contact while pounding the strike zone. He’s posted the two highest strikeout rates of his career the past two seasons, and his zone-contact percentage of 81.7% was fourth among MLB starters in 2015. In this regard, Price is among a group of hurlers he’s more often mentioned in the same breath with in Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and Max Scherzer.

So Price is throwing tons of strikes and generating loads of whiffs, which is a pretty great combination. But how? How has he been able to sharpen his command and also increase his strikeouts?

The answer lies in how Price’s pitch selection has changed over the years. When he first arrived in the majors, he mainly attacked hitters with an overpowering fastball/slider combination. As his career has gone on, Price has added a few different pitches to his arsenal and made some other tweaks along the way.

Last season, Price threw four different pitches over 15 percent of the time; a four-seamer, a sinker, a changeup and a cutter, which has replaced his slider. He also mixed in a curveball in nearly 9 percent of his offerings, giving him five pitches that, on average, clock in anywhere between 95 mph (his four-seamer) and 80 mph (his curve). All that variance in pitch selection reflects the many weapons at Price’s disposal.

The strides Price has made with his changeup in recent years are perhaps the most noteworthy. As the graph below shows, Price’s reliance on the offering has increased on an annual basis, and last season, his usage of the pitch rose above 20% for the first time.

That improved change has enabled Price to better his performance against right-handed hitters over the years. Price went with the offering over 25% of the time against righties last season, yielding just a .219 batting average against and 19.5% whiff rate, according to Brooks Baseball, his highest on any pitch.

The example below, of Price striking out Elvis Andrus with a changeup in the ALDS, shows how the pitch can be a deceptive weapon for the southpaw, especially considering he can still challenge hitters with mid-90s heat.

In fact, Price’s changeup got more swings and misses on a per-pitch basis than any of his other offerings. It’s little wonder, then, that he finished with better results against righties, who hit .216/.267/.342 off him in 2015, than left-handed batters (.257/.284/.374). Prior to 2014, when Price achieved the same feat, he had never posted better numbers against righties than lefties in single campaign.

All this demonstrates how much Price’s approach on the mound has changed, especially in recent seasons. For someone who used to dominate hitters with overpowering stuff, Price now excels due to his intelligence, elite command and control of multiple quality pitches, all while still averaging 95 mph on his fastball.

Since 2013, Price has had better command, by walk rate, than Mark Buerhle, while striking out batters at a higher clip than Zack Greinke.

And indeed, Price’s ability to adapt throughout his career is one of the main reasons why Dave Dombrowski was so adamant that Boston’s ownership spend the money required to sign him. It’s also the explanation for why Price, at the age of 30, has shown little sign of a decline but is rather at the peak of his powers.

Since 2013, Price has had better command, by walk rate, than Mark Buerhle, while striking out batters at a higher clip than Zack Greinke. The Red Sox should be excited about signing a pitcher of Price’s quality, and his willingness to evolve and seek ways to improve, even after winning a Cy Young at age 26, should give Boston hope that Price remains a top-of-the-rotation arm for years to come.

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Long one of the Red Sox’s most dependable players, Dustin Pedroia has seen injuries hinder his production over the past few seasons. That was especially true in 2015, when a series of maladies, including a hamstring strain that sidelined him for over two months, held Pedroia to just 93 games for Boston, his fewest since the 2010 campaign.

Even when he was on the field, things didn’t exactly turn out as expected for the veteran second baseman. Pedroia was better at the plate than he has been since 2011 and saw a reemergence of his power, which had greatly declined in the years leading up to 2015. Yet just as his offensive output surged, Pedroia’s fielding, long among the best in baseball, fell back down to earth. Although one season’s worth of defensive metrics aren’t enough to confirm his defense is in decline, Pedroia didn’t perform up to his usual stellar standards with the glove.

All told, Pedroia’s season was a mixed bag, much like that of the team’s itself.

What Went Right in 2015

After his offensive production dipped considerably in 2014, Pedroia underwent surgery on his left wrist to heal a persistent injury that had been giving him problems for upwards of two years. The surgery certainly seemed to correct the issue, with Pedroia enjoying his best campaign at the plate in a while. The 32-year-old batted .291/.356/.441 with 33 extra-base hits and a 116 wRC+ over 425 plate appearances.

Even more notably, Pedroia saw the return of his power stroke, with his .441 slugging percentage and .150 ISO representing his highest totals since 2012. The improved production showed that Pedroia still has much to contribute at the plate. With his wrist healed, Pedroia began punishing inside fastballs like the days of old, with his two home-run performance on Opening Day against the Phillies serving as a sign of things to come.

While Pedroia is no longer in the conversation for best second baseman in baseball, he proved he can still hang with some of the best players at the keystone in the game. Pedroia finished within the top 10 among MLB second baseman in bWAR, wRC+, wOBA and slugging percentage.

What Went Wrong in 2015

As has been the case in recent seasons, Pedroia just couldn’t stay on the field for large periods of 2015. He suffered a hamstring strain in late June that was expected to sideline him for only a few weeks. Instead, the injury kept Pedroia out of Boston’s lineup for nearly three months after he re-aggravated the strain, and the 10-year veteran didn’t play regularly again until early September.

All this came after a knee injury sidelined Pedroia for a brief period earlier in the season. These struggles with injuries underscored how much of a problem Pedroia’s health has become in recent years, with his body continuing to prevent him from playing consistently.

When Pedroia was in the lineup, his defense didn’t measure up to its past excellence. Long a perennial Gold Glove contender at second base, Pedroia performed far closer to a league-average level in the field. And according to Defensive Runs Saved, he was actually worth -3 runs for Boston on defense in 2015.

Even if we shouldn’t put too much stock into single-season samples of defensive metrics, any decline in Pedroia’s fielding, long his best calling card, is a hit to his overall production. Coupled with his diminished value on the bases, and Pedroia isn’t quite the excellent all-around player he once was.

What to Expect in 2016

For the 10th straight season, Pedroia will be penciled into the club’s lineup at second base on Opening Day. How much he plays after that is the big question. For their part, the Red Sox have stated they plan to give Pedroia more days off during the season, which certainly seems like a logical move at this point.

Given his play in 2015, Pedroia showed he still has plenty left in the tank, especially on offense. Whether he can recover some of his previous excellence in the field will bear watching and probably go a long way toward determining just how valuable Pedroia remains to the Red Sox as he ages into his mid-thirties. For a player who has long been essential to Boston’s success, here’s hoping Pedroia has a few more years of quality play left in him.

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Despite some initial consternation over Young’s expected role with the club, he looks like a solid bet to capably fill the role of fourth outfielder, as our Ben Carsley wrote Tuesday. Young’s signing helps solidify the club’s outfield for next season and gives them further depth on the bench, where his skills fit in quite well with Boston’s returning role players.

Young joins Brock Holt, Travis Shaw, and Ryan Hanigan as the likely members of the Red Sox bench on Opening Day, and it’s a group that should provide the squad with adequate depth next year.

Since he signed, a lot has been made of Young’s pull power, and for good reason. All 14 of his home runs in 2015 went to left field, and as his spray chart from the season demonstrates, Young looks like he’ll feel right at home when the team plays in Fenway Park:

The fact Young has hit left-handed pitching so well of late makes him a good candidate to platoon with Jackie Bradley Jr. in the lineup when the Red Sox face southpaws. Throughout his career, Young has batted .263/.362/.474 versus lefties, and as others have noted, he provides some much-needed insurance in case either Bradley or Rusney Castillo struggles for an extended period of time.

That Young also brings a solid defensive track record is an added benefit. While his days in center field are likely over, he should be more than capable of filling in at either corner outfield spot. No one will confuse him with Hanley Ramirez out in left field.

This type of versatility gives him something in common with Holt, though no one this side of Ben Zobrist can match Holt’s ability to play multiple positions. The 27-year-old will once again be forced into a bit-part role with Boston, but judging by his performances the past two years, Holt will find a way to prove his value yet again whenever a spot opens up for him.

He was named an AL All-Star in 2015, after all, and though he didn’t maintain that level all summer long, Holt still goes through stretches when he’s getting on base multiple times a game on a regular basis. Every team in the league would love to have Brock Holt on their bench.

Shaw is another player whose talents are easily overlooked on this Red Sox roster. Whether he can sustain that .270/.327/.487 line he posted down the stretch is uncertain, but his power potential is hard to question. His performance in 2015 at least gives Dave Dombrowski the luxury of exploring a trade of Hanley Ramirez with some degree of seriousness.

Shaw actually hit lefties better than righties for Boston last season, but he seems like a good candidate to earn some starts against righties or in pinch-hit situations. Given Shaw also showed he can at least hold his own at third base, he could fill in at the hot corner if Pablo Sandoval plays so poorly again.

With the whole offseason ahead, the Red Sox already appear to be in good shape, especially from a position-player perspective.

Lastly, Ryan Hanigan embodies just about everything you’d want in a back-up catcher. He has decent on-base ability despite not really being much of a threat with the bat. He throws out baserunners at an above-average clip, and his framing stats also rank better than most. As is often the case with veteran backstops, he’s also said to handle a pitching staff well and provide some valuable leadership in the clubhouse. Hanigan’s game is well-rounded enough that Boston can feel comfortable giving him a larger role than many second-string catchers receive.

The Red Sox also have some solid options behind these bench players in case the roster is particularly beset by injuries. Christian Vazquez, who the team was prepared to give the starting job to last season, is set to return from Tommy John surgery and will likely continue his development in Triple-A. Deven Marrero earned some playing time this past September, and perhaps more importantly for his value, demonstrated that he can play second and third base along with being a terrific defensive shortstop. And if Boston does decide to part with Hanley, it’ll likely be because first-base prospect Sam Travis is knocking on the door down in the minors after an impressive season at Double-A.

With the whole offseason ahead, the Red Sox already appear to be in good shape, especially from a position-player perspective. The versatility of someone like Holt is a huge benefit, and he looks like a particularly valuable player for Boston given the injury questions that surround Dustin Pedroia.

All this quality depth has enabled Dombrowski to shop at the high-end of the market and acquire impact players like Price and Craig Kimbrel without worrying too much about the smaller details. Young’s signing, as a result, is easy to gloss over, but his addition stabilizes the outfield picture and bench situation.

Price will, of course, be essential to any success the Red Sox have in 2016, but the bench figures to be a quiet strength for Boston as well.

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The Red Sox were Ortiz’s third different organization, and having turned 27 that offseason he was well past the point of being considered a noteworthy prospect. Ortiz had shown some intriguing power up to that point in his career and even slugged .500 over 125 games for the Twins in 2002. Still, he hadn’t made enough of an impression to stick around, and Minnesota released him that offseason after six years with the team. Few could imagine him serving as more than a bench bat in Boston.

That he became so much more is the reason why, over 13 years later, the news that Ortiz will retire after the 2016 campaign sparked dismay among Red Sox fans and immediate debate regarding what his ultimately legacy will be.

Read the rest at Baseball Prospectus.

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Dave Dombrowski has talked at length about the team’s need to add a “horse” to lead the rotation. Now the question becomes whether he’ll do so through free agency or by trading from the organization’s bundle of touted prospects.

Considering the depth currently in Boston’s rotation, most observers expect the club to acquire just one starter this offseason and piece together a solid staff behind him. Yet that reality shouldn’t necessarily keep Dombrowski from looking to add multiple starters if the right opportunity presents itself.

Indeed, the Red Sox front office shouldn’t hesitate to be aggressive in reshaping the team’s starting rotation. Given the uncertainty surrounding many of Boston’s starters after a disappointing 2015 campaign, the club could benefit even more by bringing in a couple of hurlers to improve the roster’s pitching outlook. That the Red Sox have both money to spend and numerous prospects down on the farm only opens up more possibilities for Dombrowski this winter.

For an executive who is celebrated for wheeling and dealing at the major league level and building deep, talented rotations, it shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise if Dombrowski chooses to reshuffle a large portion of Boston’s starting staff. And considering he isn’t exactly known for holding onto young talent, perhaps Dombrowski will decide to get aggressive in improving the pitching portion of the team’s roster.

Yet just how would the Red Sox make room for multiple new starters this offseason?

They could go any number of routes, but Dombrowski may decide the club is best served by dealing one of the starters presently penciled into the rotation. Although Wade Miley has only been in Boston for a year, his team-friendly deal could make him a solid trade piece, especially if Dombrowski determines that he can bring in a better option this winter.

The same goes for Clay Buchholz, who has club options in each of the next two seasons that make the injury-prone hurler a far less risky proposition. If Dombrowski decides Buchholz isn’t worth the trouble, the righty could certainly be included in a package that either nets or makes room for another pitcher in return.

Additionally, Boston has two young, promising southpaws on the roster in Eduardo Rodriguez and Henry Owens. While Rodriguez is unlikely to be traded after an impressive rookie campaign, Owens shouldn’t be viewed in the same manner, even if his ability to garner whiffs makes his potential intriguing.

Much of what happens will depend on however the Red Sox obtain that frontline arm. If they sign a top free-agent hurler—be it David Price, Zack Greinke or Johnny Cueto—they could package one of their current starters with a couple prospects to bring in another dependable pitcher to fit into the rotation.

Determining just who might be available via trade is never easy, but names like Jose Quintana, James Paxton and Tyson Ross (all of whom have been mentioned as trade candidates) could be good fits. In addition, acquiring a mid-rotation arm in this way wouldn’t cost Boston nearly as much in terms of prospects as someone like Sonny Gray.

The big names on the open market have deservedly received much of the buzz, but there is plenty of depth in this free-agent starting pitching class as well.

Of course, if Dombrowski decides to pull the trigger on a bigger deal for an elite starter, the Red Sox could further bolster their rotation by signing a mid-tier free-agent pitcher. The big names on the open market have deservedly received much of the buzz, but there is plenty of depth in this free-agent starting pitching class as well.

Someone like Scott Kazmir could be a great fit, and so too could Yovani Gallardo or Hisashi Iwakuma, though signing either would require Boston to forfeit its first-round draft pick. Japanese righty Kenta Maeda, who could be posted within the coming weeks, is another option if the Red Sox want to add further stability to their rotation.

All of this is speculation for the time being, but the larger point remains. The organization is currently loaded with noteworthy prospects and has money to spend. And despite Boston’s rotation depth, the likes of Buchholz, Rodriguez, Owens and Rick Porcello mean the staff’s performance in 2016 is open to a wide range of variance and uncertainty.

As a result, the front office can afford to be aggressive in stabilizing the rotation without mortgaging the future. Given Dombrowski’s track record, moreover, allowing him to go to work with all that money and young talent at his disposal might just be the best option for the club’s 2016 chances anyhow.

Next year’s free-agent class doesn’t have nearly the level of quality or depth as this offseason’s, which means the time could be right for the Red Sox to make multiple moves and bolster their rotation. Obtaining a frontline starter is the first step, of course, but Boston shouldn’t just stop there.

With tons of assets in their arsenal and loads of talent potentially available, this winter presents a unique opportunity for Dombrowski and the Red Sox to strike in a big way and make multiple moves to improve the rotation.

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Now that we have the luxury of looking back on his entire first campaign in Boston, there are two ways in which we can view Porcello’s campaign. On one hand, his initial season with the Red Sox was a borderline disaster, and the fact he’s entering the first year of a four-year, $82.5 million contract in 2016 raises serious cause for concern.

On the other hand, one can view Porcello’s 2015 as a year in which he made some key adjustments after determining the reasons for his first-half struggles. The Porcello who pitched down the stretch for Boston, in other words, looked like the starter the Red Sox imagined they were trading for last winter.

No matter which theory you subscribe to, the alterations Porcello made to his approach over his final nine starts leave some room for cautious optimism.

Porcello’s performances over the first three months of 2015 were abysmal, in part, because he went away from what had made him successful in Detroit. As many have documented, the righty leaned on his four-seam fastball far more frequently and began pitching up in the zone in search of extra strikeouts. While Porcello garnered more whiffs, he also gave up harder contact. The sinker that had made him one of baseball’s best groundball pitchers with the Tigers was suddenly far less of a factor in his arsenal.

A Rick Porcello who keeps the ball on the ground with frequency, picks up his fair share of strikeouts and doesn’t surrender free passes is just the type of pitcher that Boston felt comfortable handing a four-year extension to last April.

Upon his return from the DL in late August, Porcello recommitted to his sinker. He threw the offering 49 percent of the time over his final nine outings compared to a usage of 34 percent prior to that. His four-seamer usage, in turn, dropped from 31 percent back down to 18 percent after he returned from injury.

Porcello’s numbers from that point forward are hard to argue with, even if they came over a sample of just 57.1 innings. The 26-year-old posted a 3.14 ERA and 2.85 FIP, striking out 57 batters and walking just 11. That 5.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio would stand as the highest of Porcello’s career by quite some margin if translated to a full season.

Even more encouraging, however, was Porcello’s renewed ability to generate ground balls. After posting groundball rates greater than 50 percent in five of his first six seasons, Porcello yielded grounders just 45 percent of the time prior to landing on the DL. Upon returning, his groundball rate rose to 51 percent over that final nine-start span, which is right in line with his career average.

A Rick Porcello who keeps the ball on the ground with frequency, picks up his fair share of strikeouts and doesn’t surrender free passes is just the type of pitcher that Boston felt comfortable handing a four-year extension to last April.

Yet how sure can the Red Sox be that Porcello’s improvements down the stretch are legitimate? How much credit for his stellar performances should be given to the adjustments he made? And, most importantly, how sustainable are his strong numbers going to be over a larger time span?

These are the questions Porcello will be facing heading into 2016, and they can’t be easily answered until he takes the mound again. That he’s never pitched as poorly as he did for long stretches this past year gives us, in a way, cause for hope. Still, we shouldn’t necessarily expect Porcello to post a sub-3.00 FIP over a larger sample like he did in August and September.

Although he made clear changes to his approach and enjoyed improved results, Porcello still has his fair share of limitations. Even during his best sinker-balling days in Detroit, Porcello was susceptible to giving up home runs, an issue that cropped up repeatedly this season. And despite his attempts to garner more whiffs, he’s also a pitcher who allows plenty of balls in play and depends heavily on the defense behind him. Given that Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez are both slated to start in Boston’s infield next season, that could bode poorly for Porcello.

With all the tinkering he did during the season, how good Porcello can truly be is still shrouded in uncertainty. In many ways, we know hardly anymore about him than we did back in early April, when BP Boston chief Ben Carsley characterized his extension as “not a bargain, not a disaster.”

Despite all this, Porcello found some success he can build on during his final outings of the 2015 campaign. Considering his track record, it would be hard to imagine him struggling to such an extreme extent once again.

And if the Red Sox can find that ace they’ve long been searching for, Porcello should benefit from a fair deal less pressure during his second season with the club. They hopefully won’t need him pitching like the frontline starter he was unfairly billed as any longer.

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What the Red Sox truly feel behind the scenes is anybody’s guess, and there’s some evidence that the club has no intention of bringing Ramirez back. They sent him home six weeks before the season ended, which isn’t exactly a good look for a player who has a long-held reputation as a clubhouse cancer. Also, Dombrowski didn’t sign Ramirez to his current deal, and perhaps he’ll be far less interested in contending with the 30-year-old’s baggage than Ben Cherington was.

No, Ramirez’s contract, which has three years and $66 million remaining on it, won’t be easy to move. But it’s not an impossible task either, especially if Boston foots part of the bill and throws in a couple of decent prospects for good measure.

Yet if Dombrowski does part with Hanley, who will play first base for the Red Sox in 2016?

Travis Shaw is the obvious in-house candidate, and his performance down the stretch likely earned him a roster spot next season. However, Shaw comes with plenty of question marks, including an inconsistent minor league track record and mediocre road numbers that suggest his true talent level might not be what he showed in the final two months of 2015.

For a squad looking to contend again next year, expecting 500 plate appearances of above-average offense from Shaw is likely wishful thinking.

All of these details make free-agent first baseman Chris Davis an intriguing proposition for the Red Sox. While Dombrowski has stated the team’s main offseason goal is to improve its pitching staff across the board, Boston could decide to trade for a pitcher rather throw money at a top hurler on the open market.

There are reasons to be skeptical about Davis, of course. His career strikeout rate sits at 31 percent, and he goes through his fair share of cold spells at the plate. Whether his home-run production will drop away from the hitter-friendly confines of Camden Yards is a legitimate question, too.

Still, he’s been among the best power hitters in the game over the last four years. Dating back to the start of 2012, in fact, Davis leads all major leaguers in home runs (159), ranks eighth in slugging percentage (.533) and second in ISO (.277). There may not be any hitter in the game with more raw power than Chris Davis.

His performance in 2015, when he batted .262/.361/.562 with 47 home runs, reaffirmed that, even with all the strikeouts, Davis can produce at a level that few hitters in the game are able to match. He’s also stayed healthy throughout much of his career, topping 500 plate appearances in each of his four campaigns with the Orioles.

What Davis can give the Red Sox, then, is a certifiable power threat, and a hitter who can guard against possible regression on offense. Despite Boston’s strong play in the second half, the team’s lineup isn’t certain to perform that well throughout 2016. Pablo Sandoval is a huge question mark, Dustin Pedroia is perpetually sidelined with injury, and the likes of Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney Castillo could easily prove incapable of full-time roles.

Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and David Ortiz—at the age of 40—shouldn’t be expected to carry the offensive load by themselves.

Just what type of money Davis will command on the open market is the biggest question here. The Red Sox shouldn’t get into a bidding war over Davis, especially if he starts commanding a salary much beyond that $100 million mark.

But nonetheless, would Boston be better served throwing $200 million at Jordan Zimmerman or Zack Greinke, or spending much less than that on Davis? The question can’t easily be answered, but we all know the risks associated with aging starting pitchers as they move into their thirties. At 29 years old, Davis shouldn’t see his power suddenly decline overnight.

Signing Davis, moreover, wouldn’t prevent Shaw or well-regarded prospect Sam Travis from having a future in Boston either. One can imagine Davis fitting snugly into the DH role once Ortiz retires, and both Shaw and Travis need more seasoning before taking on everyday roles anyhow.

What makes this offseason so fascinating is the number of routes Dombrowski could take in fine-tuning the Red Sox roster. He might spend big money in free agency or use the club’s minor-league depth to trade for MLB-ready performers. If Boston’s brass ends up dealing for a starter, they could do worse than spending some money on Davis, whose offensive production is more dependable than his reputation might suggest. You’d have to think the Red Sox would better off with Davis at first than Hanley next season, even if it would take some creative maneuvering from Dombrowski.

Some may view Davis as an unnecessary luxury, especially when the team’s pitching staff needs an upgrade. To be sure, finding a frontline starter is the most important task facing the Red Sox this offseason. Yet the offense shouldn’t be ignored either, and Davis possesses the kind of power that isn’t easily attainable in the modern game.

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