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(Editor's note: This is the final installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training.)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Dripping with sweat, Boston Red Sox shortstop prospect Jose Iglesias leaned over, grabbed a towel to dry off, picked up his glove and sprinted out to his position during a voluntary workout for position players Wednesday morning at the player development complex behind JetBlue Park at Fenway South.

The 22-year-old Cuban defector wants to achieve his dream of becoming the starting shortstop for the Red Sox. And he wants to do it this season.

"Of course I would like to," he said. "Even if I'm not starting, I'm going to play hard. I'm going to play at 100 percent no matter where I play."

He'll have tough competition with veterans Mike Aviles and Nick Punto also vying for the job. There's no denying Iglesias has the defensive ability to play at the big league level, but his lack of offense has been holding him back. He's hoping his offseason work will propel him to the next level.

"I'm just focused on saying positive all season long and try to be healthy every single day and be consistent at the plate," he said. "I want to be more disciplined. It was a great offseason for me because I got a chance to get better physically, and prepare for the season. I did a very good job during the offseason."

He has played just 10 games in the majors, all last season, when he went 2-for-6 with three runs scored and two strikeouts. Other than his brief stint with the Red Sox, Iglesias spent the season honing his skills at Triple-A Pawtucket. In 101 games for the PawSox, he hit .235 and drove in 31 runs with 58 strikeouts and 21 walks.

Defensively for Pawtucket, he recorded 145 putouts with only 12 errors, and added 68 double plays.

On one of the back fields during voluntary workouts for positions players Wednesday, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine stood and watched the defensive prowess and abilities that Iglesias possesses. While witnessing flair with the glove, Valentine later compared Iglesias to Rey Ordonez, who played for Valentine with the New York Mets.

"My first impression is that he can catch it," Valentine said of Iglesias. "I bet he can throw it after he catches it, too. He has an interesting exchange. A lot of people will make the comparison, and I did see similarities to Rey Ordonez in play/glove action. Initially, it looked like he had more range than Rey."

When Ordonez broke into the majors in 1996, he was 25. Iglesias is only 22.

"There are some similarities that they have two hands, two legs, a head, they throw right-handed, hit right-handed and they're born in Cuba," Valentine said. "I bet you most of the similarities stops there, other than the fact they exchange the ball in a similar fashion because they're individuals."

Ordonez and Iglesias are similar in the fact that both are outstanding defensively. Ordonez struggled offensively and finished a nine-year career with a .246 average.

"I didn't do a very good job of developing Rey into an offensive player, so maybe I can learn from what I didn't do," Valentine said. "That was a challenge to try to get offensive production out of Rey Ordonez -- no doubt.

"Rey was not a very receptive person. Rey did not adapt, didn't receive [constructive criticism] well. It seems like Jose might be a little different than that."

Iglesias is a smart kid. He learned to speak English quickly and he's all about learning from veteran players. Red Sox DH David Ortiz and second baseman Dustin Pedroia have helped the young shortstop both on and off the field.

Iglesias was also tight with veteran shortstop Marco Scutaro and was surprised when the Red Sox traded him to the Colorado Rockies last month in exchange for pitcher Clayton Mortensen.

"Of course, because nobody expected that," Iglesias said of being stunned by the trade. "It's the team's decision."

By the time camp breaks in early April, Iglesias wants the team to make another decision, and that would be to name him the starting shortstop.

If Iglesias struggles with the bat, that's unlikely to happen. Valentine doesn't believe the Red Sox can compete in the AL East without having offensive production from the shortstop position.

"Probably not," Valentine said. "My fast brain says probably not."

The manager's decision could change once he sees Iglesias play on an every-day basis.

(Editor's note: This is the ninth installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- This much we can say with certainty about whether there was a leadership void in the Red Sox clubhouse that contributed to last season's collapse:

• 1. No one was able to stop the bleeding in September, regardless of how many meetings were called by manager Terry Francona or the players themselves.
  
• 2. Players already are lining up this spring with vows of taking a more active leadership role.
  
• 3. The new manager, Bobby Valentine, will demand a level of accountability that showed slippage last season, as Francona himself acknowledged when he said his voice didn't carry the same authority that it did in years past.
  

Just in the past week, both first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia signaled their intentions to assume more leadership responsibilities, which would seem to suggest that they perceived something was lacking in 2011.

Saltalamacchia insisted that wasn't the case.

"We all knew what we had to do," Saltalamacchia said. "There are guys with two (World Series rings), guys with one, so we knew what we had to do.

"I think we might have just added pressure on ourselves. I think that's where we faltered."

Gonzalez, in interviews with ESPN Boston Radio's Adam Jones and "SportsCenter," refuted the perception of the Sox clubhouse as a beer-and-fried-chicken-fueled Delta House.

"We just didn't play good baseball," he said. "People have to eat, whether it's chicken or steak. ... More than anything, it was just the fact we didn't play good baseball. We didn't play good defense for our pitchers, we didn't get those timely hits that we needed to bring in that extra run. We didn't prevent enough runs. It was a team as a whole that failed. We look forward to erasing that and getting back into the playoffs."

Still, both Saltalamacchia and Gonzalez expressed their intentions to step up. It will be notable whether Josh Beckett, who will address the media Sunday for the first time this spring and has been widely accused of shirking his status as tone-setter for the pitching staff, will acknowledge that failure and pledge to do otherwise this season.

"I'm looking forward to taking more of a leadership role and get us where we need to be," said Saltalamacchia, who may have felt constrained to do so by the fact that team captain Jason Varitek played the same position. "But it's not going to be just one person.

"I'm not going to have a 'C' on my chest. I'm not going to tell people what to do. I'll just go about my business the right way and lead by example."

Gonzalez said he was reluctant to "step on toes" last season, his first with the Sox. Not so in 2012, he said.

"I'm more of a leader by example, but I can be a guy that takes a guy to the side and talks to them," Gonzalez said. "I think I'm more of a mentor than a guy that will yell at the team, and try to hype the team up in that sense. I'll make sure everybody's comfortable and happy and things are going well so each individual player can play to their full potential."

Then there is Valentine, who has a mandate to run a tighter ship, which probably dovetails quite nicely with a clubhouse presumably full of players embarrassed by their historic failure and for that reason should be inclined to give their new manager a chance. By his own admission, Francona's reliance on his players to police themselves proved ineffective last season. It would be naive to believe that with a veteran team, Valentine will impose a draconian order in the clubhouse -- he already has said he doesn't believe the Sox need a clubhouse cop.

But let's just say Valentine, a bad loser, won't be afraid to make a few people uncomfortable if that's what it takes to win.

Coming Monday -- Who are the prospects to watch in camp?

(Editor's note: This is the eighth installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- This is not the way either one of them wants it to end. Tim Wakefield, the 45-year-old knuckleballer, wanted to become the winningest pitcher in Boston Red Sox history, passing both Cy Young and Roger Clemens.

Jason Varitek, the soon-to-be 40-year-old catcher, wanted to play until someone tore his uniform off, a time he expected wouldn't come for at least another two or three years.

These things seldom end well, of course. Ted Williams hitting a home run in his last at-bat and leaving on his own terms happens once in the first century or so of a franchise's history.

Neither Wakefield nor Varitek are in a position to dictate the final scenes of careers that have contained an abundance of great moments for both players. Neither has received a major league offer from another club to sign as free agents. The Red Sox have offered them minor league contracts with an invitation to major league camp, but with no guarantee of a spot on the big league roster.

Neither player has yet responded publicly to the team's offers. Wakefield's agent, Barry Meister, said he had no comment Wednesday, though there were indications from club sources that Wakefield will choose to retire.

Varitek, the longtime captain of the team who remarried this winter, has not revealed his intentions, speculation about his time with the Sox coming to an end is nothing new. In 2010, Varitek took a bow before a cheering Sox crowd in what many assumed was a farewell performance, only to come back the following spring to mentor, and share time with, Jarrod Saltalamacchia behind the plate.

This time, however, the Sox re-signed another veteran catcher, Kelly Shoppach, and with Ryan Lavarnway a catcher-in-waiting, there would appear to be no place for Varitek on the Sox. Could he still decide to come to camp? It may depend on how badly he still wants to play. He could come to camp with the idea that an injury could open a place for him, if not with the Sox then another big league club.

That would require a considerable amount of humility and grace for a player considered an integral part of both World Series championship teams.

Wakefield at least would appear to have an outside chance at a job, with the last two positions in the starting rotation not fully settled. Daniel Bard is expected to win one of those jobs, but the other would seem to be up for grabs among Alfredo Aceves and at least four other veteran pitchers, all with health questions -- Vicente Padilla, Aaron Cook, Carlos Silva and Ross Ohlendorf, who was just signed to a minor league deal.

Wakefield has 186 wins with the Red Sox, six short of the team record, and 200 wins overall. But he won just one of his last 10 starts, the bullpen failing to hold several leads, and when the Sox desperately needed someone in September to step up and pitch a big game, Wakefield gave up five or more runs in each of his last four starts while lasting five or fewer innings in three of them. The Sox appear committed to looking for better options, and without the complications a knuckleballer can bring.

Reporting date is Sunday. You can't rule out anything, especially with Varitek, but it would be a surprise to see either of them walk into camp as players.

Coming Saturday – Is there a leadership void in the Red Sox clubhouse?

(Editor's note: This is the seventh installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- Before Jacoby Ellsbury becomes offended at the suggestion that he won't duplicate his breakout 2011 season, let's first clarify what we're talking about.

Ellsbury had 200 or more hits, knocked in 100 or more runs, scored 100 or more runs, hit 30 or more home runs, and stole 30 or more bases last season.

Until 1963, no one had ever put up those kinds of numbers in a single season. Guy by the name of Henry Aaron was the first.

It didn't happen again until 1996, when former Sox center fielder Ellis Burks accomplished the feat for the Colorado Rockies. That was the only time in his career that Burks ever had 200 hits, scored 100 runs, drove in 100 and stole 30 bases, never mind doing it all at once.

His Rockies teammate, Larry Walker, did it in 1997, the only 200-hit season of his career and only time he stole 30 or more bases. Alex Rodriguez did it in 1998, the only time in his career A-Rod stole as many as 30 bases, and Alfonso Soriano and Vladimir Guerrero matched in 2002. That was the only 200-hit season of Soriano's career, and the last time Vladi stole at least 30 bases, something he did twice in his career.

So all Ellsbury has to do to duplicate his performance is become the first player in baseball history to have two seasons of those numbers across the board. Good luck with that.

The forecasters are already lining up saying Ellsbury will not come close to hitting 30 home runs again in 2012. Baseball Prospectus projects 16 home runs from Ellsbury this season, Bill James 19 (after predicting just 8 in 2011), and FanGraphs 20.

The skepticism may be warranted, considering Ellsbury had never hit as many as 10 home runs in a season before last season, although fractured ribs in 2010 may have kept him from crossing that threshold a year earlier.

Ellsbury was 27 last season when he topped 30 home runs. He was one of five players 27 or under who did that for the first time in 2011, the others being Mike Stanton of the Marlins, Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, Justin Upton of the Diamondbacks and Jay Bruce of the Reds.

What are the chances any of the five will match or exceed that number this season? We looked at some recent precedents, with the help of Baseball-Reference.com. From 2005 to 2010, there were 33 players in Ellsbury's age group (27 and under) who hit 30 or more home runs for the first time in their careers. Of those 33, 10 hit at least 30 the next season: David Wright, Dan Uggla, Mark Reynolds, Justin Morneau, Ryan Howard, Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun and Jason Bay. All 10, it can safely be said, fit the prototype of power hitter.

Twenty-three of the 33 did not hit 30 the next season, with six failing to hit at least 20. Ian Kinsler, the Texas Rangers' second baseman, went from 31 to 9, though he rebounded with 32 the following season. Injury accounted for the drop-off in some cases (Chase Utley, Grady Sizemore, Kendrys Morales, Josh Hamilton among others), but the decline averaged 12.6 home runs per player.

Closer to home, 10 Sox players in the past 50 years (since 1961) hit 30 or more home runs for the first time at the age of 27 or younger. Only four -- Hawk Harrelson, Jim Rice, Mo Vaughn and David Ortiz -- hit 30 or more the next season. Six players -- Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith, Rico Petrocelli, Fred Lynn, Butch Hobson and Tony Conigliaro -- did not. Yaz went from 44 home runs in his Triple Crown season, 1967, to 23 the next. Lynn hit 39 in 1979, 12 the next season, the biggest drop-off by any Sox member of the 30-homer club.

Ellsbury became just the third player in Sox history with a season of 200 hits, 30 home runs, 100 RBIs and 100 runs. Rice did it three times (1977-79), Vaughn did it twice (1996, 1998). Ted Williams never had 200 hits in a season, in part because he walked so much, in part because he played a 154-game season. Ellsbury's 39 steals place him in a class of his own in Sox annals.

So there will hardly be any shame in Ellsbury not measuring up statistically to the impossibly high bar he set for himself last season. But that is different from saying that in the prime of his career, Ellsbury will not maintain his place among the game's elite players (and we didn't even mention his defense -- no errors and more putouts than any American League outfielder in 2011).

Coming Thursday -- What about Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield?

(Editor's note: This is the sixth installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- The Red Sox don’t need a primer in wrist injuries, not when two of their biggest stars in the last 15 years, Nomar Garciaparra and David Ortiz, were lost to the team for significant stretches of time when they hurt their wrists.

Garciaparra, who had won back-to-back batting titles, was never the same after undergoing reconstructive surgery on his wrist in 2001, a season in which he missed all but 21 games.

Ortiz, two years after hitting a club-record 54 home runs, went on the disabled list twice and missed nearly two months in 2008 with what was diagnosed as a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. Ortiz opted not to undergo surgery, choosing rest and rehabilitation, but got off to a terrible start in 2009, attributed in part to continuing soreness in his wrist.

Jed Lowrie does not share star quality with either Garciaparra or Ortiz, but wrist issues cost the former Sox shortstop the better part of two seasons, as he played most of 2008 with what was ultimately diagnosed as a fractured left wrist, requiring season-ending surgery the following April. Even last season, Lowrie continued to ice the wrist after most games.

So the Red Sox have cause to tread carefully with left fielder Carl Crawford, who in January surprised the team with news that swinging a bat in offseason work was causing pain in his left wrist. The team and player decided after Crawford had an MRI that surgery was warranted, and shortly thereafter he underwent arthroscopic surgery performed by hand specialist Donald Sheridan in Arizona.

The surgery was a response to damage to the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC), according to Sox general manager Ben Cherington, and Crawford likely will miss the start of the season. That is not an optimal scenario for a player coming off the worst season of his career, his first after signing a seven-year, $142 million contract, but Cherington insists Crawford will be available for most of the schedule.

The TFCC, located on the ulnar (pinky finger) side of the wrist, functions as a shock absorber and stabilizes the bones of the wrist, enabling smooth movement of the wrist joint. The TFCC is important for activities that require wrist rotation, such as swinging a bat. Damage typically is caused by a traumatic episode, such as using the hand to brace a fall or by overuse that can come from swinging a bat.

Crawford reported after the season that his wrist was not an issue, Cherington said, which would seem to rule out a single episode, but that’s just a guess. The surgery, the GM said, was a debridement, which means a smoothing of unstable fragments of cartilage in the wrist. There were no tears, Cherington said, that required more extensive repair.

Typically, the recovery period lasts six to eight weeks before a player is able to resume baseball activities. Cherington said he expects Crawford will be swinging a bat sometime during spring training, but again, it is safe to assume the new Sox medical team will proceed with caution.

Crawford’s injury is the most significant health issue facing the Red Sox this spring. Outfielder Ryan Kalish, who had neck and shoulder issues last season and underwent surgery in November to repair a torn labrum, is not expected back until June at the earliest. Pitcher Clay Buchholz, limited to 14 starts last season with what was ultimately diagnosed as a stress fracture in his lower back, is said to be fully recovered and primed to reclaim his spot in the starting rotation.

More uncertain is the status of reliever Bobby Jenks, who signed a two-year, $12 million deal a year ago but appeared in just 19 games last season because of back problems and a biceps strain. Jenks was forced to shut it down when a pulmonary embolism was discovered, then after the season underwent surgery for a spinal compression. The Sox say they expect Jenks to compete for a bullpen spot in camp, but it remains to be seen where he is in his recovery.

Coming Wednesday -- Can Jacoby Ellsbury duplicate his success from last season?

(Editor's note: This is the fifth installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- The Red Sox master plan has gathered dust now -- this was 2005 -- but the idea was that the team’s closer of the future would be a college star playing in New York City.

It took seven years, but it has finally come to fruition, even though it didn’t quite work out the way the Sox had sketched it.

Back then, the Sox had planned on grooming Craig Hansen, the St. John’s star who was the team’s first-round draft pick that summer, was rushed to the big leagues, and is now casting about for a job after unmet expectations and a series of injuries put him on the unemployed list.

Carrying the torch instead is Andrew Bailey, star pitcher for Staten Island’s Wagner College and 16th-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, whose draft position plummeted after he underwent Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery that spring. The Brewers did not sign Bailey, who stayed in school and went back into the draft, and this time was taken in the sixth round by the Oakland Athletics.

Three years later, he was an All-Star and rookie of the year, repeated as an All-Star a year later and this winter was traded to the Red Sox, who bypassed numerous other free-agent options to anoint the 27-year-old New Jersey native the successor to Jonathan Papelbon.

That move is fraught with risk, namely because Papelbon last season re-established himself as one of the game’s elite closers and because Bailey’s elbow issues did not end in college. Bailey has had elbow problems each of the last two springs, had surgery to clean out loose bodies in his elbow at the end of the 2010 season, and pitched just more than 90 innings combined in 2010 and ’11, after pitching 83 1/3 innings in his rookie season.

The Sox are satisfied Bailey is healthy, but he will be closely monitored, and the potential for a second-guess remains enormous. Most objective observers understand why the Sox weren’t willing to match the $50 million, four-year deal the Phillies gave Papelbon, but if Bailey struggles or breaks down, GM Ben Cherington will be beset with questions why he didn’t pursue other alternatives in a free-agent market teeming with closers (Heath Bell, Ryan Madson, Francisco Cordero, Jonathan Broxton and Joe Nathan).

The Sox also had an obvious in-house candidate to succeed Papelbon in Daniel Bard, but both the pitcher and the ballclub prefer to bring him to camp as a starter, though new manager Bobby Valentine has claimed the right to revisit that move before Opening Day. But given the lack of depth in the rotation, it appears that Bard is destined for the rotation (though colleague Joe McDonald disagrees in the video above). That would leave Bailey to prove that he can thrive in the crucible of the American League East.

Meanwhile, new setup man Mark Melancon prepped for his transition from the last-place Houston Astros by diving among great white sharks with his wife Mary Catherine off the coast of New Zealand this winter. Melancon, a former Yankee prospect, also is an alumnus of Tommy John surgery, but after being traded by the Bombers thrived in his role as Astros closer last season, averaging eight strikeouts per nine innings and developing a new cutter, which helped him keep the ball on the ground (55 percent groundball rate).

Is the Bailey-Melancon combo the equal of Papelbon-Bard? Tough to make that argument, which is one reason why Alfredo Aceves may return to the 'pen even though, like Bard, he is penciled in as a potential starter. Aceves gave the Sox 114 innings in a swing role in 2011, can pitch every day -- he pitched in each of the last four games of the season -- and is fearless, one reason why his name came up in internal discussions as a potential closer.

Bobby Jenks is an unknown quantity because of health issues (back, embolism) that cut his season short last year, and Matt Albers hit a wall after being a pleasant surprise during the season’s first four months. Franklin Morales projects as Valentine’s most dependable lefty out of the 'pen, but building bullpens, as Theo Epstein sadly acknowledged time and again, is one of the most unpredictable parts of a GM's job.

Coming Tuesday -- Health issues to watch in Fort Myers

(Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into the Boston Red Sox's spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- It has to rank as one of the oddest developments of this or any other winter: The Red Sox having to defend themselves against accusations that they’re too cheap to compete in the American League East -- because, critics both locally and nationally allege, majority owner John W. Henry is directing more cash to his Liverpool soccer team at the expense of his Boston Baseball Club.

Henry made an unscheduled visit to a radio station to refute that claim several months ago, and CEO Larry Lucchino went on the air Friday for the same reason after a national columnist made his case that Henry was suffering from soccer on the brain.

The Sox owners have every right to be indignant. They have two $20 million-a-year players on the roster this season in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, the first baseman’s seven-year, $154 million extension kicking in this season, and they have $25 million in starting pitching on the disabled list, with John Lackey out for the entire season after Tommy John surgery and Daisuke Matsuzaka expected to miss at least half a season after undergoing the same procedure last spring.

Try as they might to avoid doing so, the Sox are teetering on the brink of crossing the luxury tax threshold again this season, they already have almost $95 million in salary commitments in 2014 ($20 million more than the Yankees), and already have spent $44 million on the 2017 team. And this we call cheap? Ludicrous. There is no credible argument to be made that Henry is poaching from Sox's monies to float a few more footmen for his soccer team.

That said, general manager Ben Cherington’s lack of payroll flexibility left him without the means to make the kind of move we have come to expect the Sox to make when they have an obvious need, such as starting pitching this winter. C.J. Wilson and Yu Darvish, the high-end difference-makers? Out of the question. Hiroki Kuroda and Edwin Jackson, less-expensive-but-still-pricy options? No can do. Even sore-backed Roy Oswalt, who still lurks out there as a possible solution, evidently has to drop his price before the Sox stake a claim on his services, though Oswalt’s reluctance to relocate in the American League may be an equal factor in forestalling a deal.

So the Red Sox enter the season banking on two pitchers, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester, whose reputations took fearsome hits in the aftermath of the team's September collapse, and Clay Buchholz, whose bad back limited him to 14 starts last season and made him a spectator for the autumn blood-letting.

Prediction: Beckett, who was everything an ace is supposed to be until he turned an ankle in early September then finished the season with back-to-back brutal starts (12 ER, 4 HR in 13 1/3 IP), and Lester, whose good work for much of the season was obscured by his poor September (5.40 ERA in six September starts), will bring anger, passion and excellence to the mound for a combined 400-plus innings and 32-36 combined wins this season.

Buchholz threw just 82 2/3 innings last season, and although we hear reports that he is fully recovered from the stress fracture that sidelined him last season, the Sox will be in trouble if he breaks down again.

The biggest bet placed by Cherington and the Sox this season, though, is that Daniel Bard can make the transition from setup man supreme to starter. The way the Sox see it, Bard, unlike Jonathan Papelbon before him, is deeply committed to the change and has a higher ceiling than some of the free-agent options on which they took a pass.

The rotation will be filled out by swingman Alfredo Aceves, one of a trio of recycled injury risks (Aaron Cook, Vicente Padilla or Carlos Silva) or a kid such as Andrew Miller. Slim pickings, it would appear, especially if Aceves is needed back in the bullpen. And if one of the big three goes down, the lack of depth would be dangerously exposed.

That’s why it is reasonable to expect that Cherington isn’t done making moves, whether it is finally getting Oswalt under contract or triggering a deal for a Gavin Floyd.

Coming Monday: How will the bullpen shake out without Pap?

(Editor's note: This is the third installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into Red Sox spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- The meeting never came off. Carl Crawford chooses his own company in the offseason.

Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington and manager Bobby Valentine had to be content with a phone call, which came only after Crawford discovered his left wrist was aching, the team and player deciding that surgery might be a good idea.

In some ways, you can't blame Crawford for being less than eager to have a sitdown with his bosses to discuss the 2011 season. That ended in Baltimore with the Sox version of a Wes Welker moment, when Crawford was unable to make a sliding catch of Robert Andino's sinking liner that dropped for the hit that completed the Sox free-fall out of a playoff spot.

You can debate which play had the greater degree of difficulty, the sure-handed Welker missing the back-shoulder pass thrown by Tom Brady or the Gold Glover Crawford not putting sufficient leather glove on Andino's ball before it fell to earth. Welker said it was a play he has made "a thousand times." Crawford said he felt he had a "good chance" to make the kind of play that was a staple of his repertoire for Tampa Bay.

What is beyond dispute is the colossal disconnect between Boston's expectations and Crawford's performance after they signed him to a seven-year, $142 million deal last winter. Most fans know the broad outlines of his stat line: the .255 batting average, the 65 runs scored, the 18 stolen bases, all career lows.

Less advertised are the historic components of just how bad he was in 2011. Crawford's on-base percentage of .289 was the lowest of any Red Sox left-fielder ever (minimum 300 at-bats) in a season. For Sox outfielders with 500 or more at-bats, Tony Armas is the only outfielder with a lower on-base percentage (.254), and that came in a season, 1983, in which Armas hit 36 home runs and drove in 107 runs.

Crawford also walked just 23 times (while striking out 104 times). The only Sox outfielder with fewer walks (and 500 or more at-bats) was Shano Collins, who had 18. In 1921.

If a Red Sox minor leaguer had put up those kind of numbers for the on-base-obsessed Red Sox, he could have kissed goodbye any chance of a promotion. Yet for that, the Red Sox are on the hook for $20 million a season to Crawford.

Which makes it all the more disconcerting that any plans Crawford had of demonstrating that last season was an aberration will by necessity be postponed while he recovers from his wrist surgery. Cherington has expressed confidence that Crawford will miss just the start of the season, but such projections are always suspect. And while the procedure -- a debridement to remove damaged tissue as a way to treat arthritis in the wrist -- was described as routine -- wrist injuries have the potential to remain troublesome for a hitter.

So with uncertainty in left and J.D. Drew's departure in right -- injuries limited him to just 284 plate appearances in his farewell season and hastened his apparent decision to retire -- the Sox are looking at opening the season with MVP runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury in center field flanked by two newly acquired part-timers, Bay Area imports Ryan Sweeney (Oakland) and Cody Ross (San Francisco).

Sweeney, who came in the trade for closer Andrew Bailey, is just 26 and has a swing made for the Green Monster, or so the Sox told him after the trade. He is an above-average defender, but he also went more than a year between home runs (May 4, 2010 to July 27, 2011).

Ross, 31, was a postseason star for the Giants after his trade from the Marlins in 2010, but was deemed expendable by the Giants after batting just .240 with his second straight season of just 14 home runs, after hitting 46 over the previous two seasons in Florida. Ross was on the Sox radar from the start of the winter, but became a must-sign after Crawford's surgery. His power numbers should improve in Fenway and he gives the Red Sox a potent bat against left-handers, and he will be bidding for an every-day spot in the Sox outfield.

Another potential contender for regular playing time is Ryan Kalish, but after neck and shoulder procedures, he is not expected back until early summer. Darnell McDonald figures to stick as the fifth outfielder.

So much hinges on Crawford. A bounce-back season, the kind the Red Sox expect, will have a galvanizing impact on the entire lineup. But continued struggles, whether because of his wrist or an inability to settle in here, could make the outfield a real trouble spot in 2012.

Coming Sunday: Do the Red Sox have enough starting pitching?

(Editor's note: This is the second installment in our "10 Questions in 10 Days" series leading into Red Sox spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

BOSTON -- When the Red Sox picked up Marco Scutaro's option after last season, they were tacitly declaring that Cuban defector Jose Iglesias remained a work in progress, a wonderfully gifted defender who at 22 lacked sufficient at-bats in pro ball to make the leap to the big leagues.

Then they traded Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies, and all bets were off.

Even for a team that has installed a turnstile at short since trading Nomar Garciaparra in 2004, the Red Sox enter 2012 with more uncertainty at the position than any year since 2001, when spring wrist surgery sidelined Garciaparra until July.

The trade of Scutaro, and Jed Lowrie before him, leaves the Red Sox with what on paper appear to be unpalatable options at best, unworkable choices at worst.

Mike Aviles? After undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery in 2009, he couldn't crack the Kansas City Royals as an every-day player, was sent back to the minors as recently as last June, and was dumped by the Royals after complaining of his utility role. If the Red Sox were planning on Aviles' being their shortstop this season, they had a clever way of disguising it: They asked him to take an outfielder's glove with him to Puerto Rico and work on his outfield skills in winter ball.

Nick Punto? Last season in St. Louis, Punto was hurt on the first day of workouts and underwent surgery for a sports hernia. He wound up making two more trips to the disabled list in 2011, once with a strained flexor muscle in his forearm that affected his throws from the left side of the infield, and once with a strained oblique muscle.

Punto started six games at short for the Cardinals last season. He also is 34.

Aviles and Punto both have their upsides. Aviles responded to regular playing time with the Red Sox by swinging a productive bat, though his .317/.340/.436 batting line was the result of just 107 plate appearances. But only six of his 42 starts came at short.

Punto, when healthy, has always been an above-average defender, regarded by Ron Gardenhire, his former manager in Minnesota, as one of his favorite players because of his readiness to do whatever was asked at him, at any position. During the World Series last season, pitcher Joe Nathan, then with the Twins, said every pitcher on the staff missed him.

"As a pitcher, to have a guy behind you who can play that type of defense and take away hits and runs -- some of the plays he makes are just unbelievable," Nathan said.

The Red Sox signed Punto to a two-year, $3 million deal in December, valuing him for his glove all over the diamond, and for his reputation as the kind of clubhouse presence the team was sorely lacking. There was little reason then, or now, especially given Punto's trouble throwing last season because of a forearm strain that caused him to miss 36 games and had him contemplating surgery to repair ligament damage, that the Sox saw him as their every-day shortstop.

A week before spring training, however, the party line is that Aviles and Punto are capable replacements for Scutaro.

"What we felt is we had a couple guys in Aviles and Punto who we thought could help us get close to giving us what Marco did," Sox GM Ben Cherington said in a recent interview.

Aviles figures to get first crack at the every-day job, with Punto the most logical candidate to fill the utility role. But in the wings will be Iglesias, who burns with the desire to fulfill the promise the Red Sox saw when they gave him a four-year, $8.2 million contract as a 19-year-old.

The Red Sox may well decide that they can no longer wait for his bat to come around. The last time they won a World Series, in 2007, they did so with a so-called “offensive” shortstop, Julio Lugo, who posted a .294 on-base percentage. Bobby Valentine, when he managed the Mets, made another Cuban defector and exquisite defender, Rey Ordonez, his every-day shortstop as a rookie.

Ordonez was 25 at the time and had four seasons of pro experience, compared to two for Iglesias. But Valentine, once he lays eyes on Iglesias, may decide that time can't wait.

Coming Thursday: How strong is the Red Sox outfield?

(Editor’s note: Today begins our “10 Questions in 10 Days” series leading into Red Sox spring training, which officially kicks off Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report.)

A year ago at this time, Bobby Valentine was directing traffic in a blizzard, in his role as public safety director for his hometown of Stamford, Conn. Now as new manager of the Red Sox, Valentine finds himself charged with navigating past another storm, the Great Collapse of 2011, which swallowed up a Red Sox season, took down a manager, splattered the general manager on his way out of town and shredded a few other reputations along the way.

At first blush, Valentine is not the obvious candidate to restore order -- in his previous incarnation as a big-league manager, with the New York Mets, the normally understated Sporting News ran a cover story asking, WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE BOBBY V? He was battler, bluster, Barnum and baseball savant all compressed into one tightly wrapped package, ready to bare his teeth and put up skinned knuckles to any challenger, be it his players, his bosses, the opposing dugout or the paid scribblers who took sides in chronicling his every move.

He took the Mets to the playoffs, and then a World Series, and yet his departure after the 2002 season was met more with relief than regret. He had to go to the other side of the world to rehabilitate his image, and in Japan won the adulation he craved but never fully realized here, taking an also-ran to its first Japan Series title in 31 years. Given near-total control of the Chiba Lotte Marines, Valentine brought passion, persistence and brilliance that was rewarded with success on the field, not to mention a fattened bank account.

While in Japan, Valentine says, he had opportunities to come back and manage in the big leagues, the Rays, Marlins and Dodgers all showing varying degrees of interest, but when he did return stateside, it was as an ESPN broadcaster. He came late to the Red Sox managerial search -- at least the one conducted publicly by new GM Ben Cherington -- but embraced the opportunity first proffered him by Sox CEO Larry Lucchino. At 62, he said, Valentine saw the Red Sox position as a dream job, and a chance to realize his greatest unfulfilled ambition, winning a World Series.

In his first two months on the job, Valentine has displayed the boundless energy for which he is known, recasting the coaching staff, reaching out to his players, regaling fans on the banquet circuit and reiterating at every opportunity his respect for, and appreciation of, Cherington, who has responded positively in kind.

The true hard work lies ahead. Valentine’s predecessor, Terry Francona, left with two World Series rings and a strong argument that he was the best manager the team has ever had. Chances are this team, as Francona has acknowledged, is ready for a new voice, but will the players be prepared, after the laid-back Francona, for the in-your-face style of Valentine who, in past incarnations at least, pulled no punches?

In what he surely views as his last, best chance, perhaps Valentine will more deftly exercise diplomacy when it’s called for, deflect the spotlight away when it shines too brightly on him at the expense of the team, and remain loyal to the idea of close collaboration over open confrontation with the front office. There is little doubt that he will have few peers in extracting every bit of talent out of his roster.

The Red Sox, in the reign of John Henry, have avoided the pursuit of a powerful presence in the dugout. They have one now. Will the “V” in Bobby V stand for victory, as the Red Sox believe, or vanity, as Valentine’s many critics claim? The great experiment is about to begin.

Coming Wednesday: Who will play shortstop?