McAdam: Unchanged roster has Red Sox eager to try it again with same cast of characters

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Roster churn is a given in baseball, turnover part of the norm.

Free agency beckons, trades happen and players come and go.

Except for the 2019 Red Sox.

Reliever Joe Kelly signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December and the presumption is that closer Craig Kimbrel is not going to return, despite remaining available as a free agent.

But the Red Sox team that takes the field in Seattle on March 28 will have a distinctly familiar look to it. The rotation will be the same as the one the Red Sox had last September. The outfield is intact, and so is the infield. One catcher may be dealt, but two of the three will remain. And the bench is expected to be unchanged.

In short, the Red Sox will try to do something no team has done in almost 20 years, and attempt to do it with almost exactly the same cast of players.

"In my 10 years,'' said Rick Porcello, "I don't think I've ever been in a situation where (virtually) all the guys return. There's usually a turnover of at least five, seven ... quite a few guys. It's kind of exciting, especially on the heels of what we built and we continue to grow from last year. It's always easy to say this when you win, but it's a great group of guys in here and I don't think there's one guy in here who wishes that he had a change of scenery.

"We're all looking forward to getting back here, even given how late we played and how long we played last year.  We're all pretty excited about that.''

David Price is with his fourth organization and is accustomed to turnover. He's been traded twice himself, so at times, he's been part of the roster overhaul.

But he's gratified this bunch is a familiar one.

"This is special,'' Price said. "It's something I was a part of for a while in Tampa the first couple of years -- '09, '10 and '11 -- then guys started leaving. But this almost takes you back to high school and college days, when you're with the same group of guys for an extended period of time. To me, that makes it more comfortable, it gives you better relationships and it makes it that much more fun.''

Because nearly everyone was here a year ago, there will be no awkward getting-to-know-one-another indoctrination period for this Red Sox team. When the season begins, they can hit the ground running, having already experienced things together.

"That definitely helps,'' agreed Price, "especially in an environment like Boston, to have a lot of the same guys in that clubhouse that have been through that gauntlet and knowing what to expect and not having to have the meetings about what to expect this year. Guys in that clubhouse know what's going on and to have that, it definitely helps us.''

Two key free agents -- Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi -- were re-signed early in the offseason, sending the clear message the Sox were intent on keeping the roster largely unchanged. But even before those signings, the players who already knew they would be returning began to discuss the 2019 season.

"We've talked about how grateful we are to have the opportunity and what it's going to take to make the most of it and how we're going to make another run at it,'' recalled Porcello. "Honestly, it started a day or so after the parade. I got a text from (Price) and we were already talking about next year. Any other season we've had, we've never thought about baseball that early in the offseason. It's usually a couple of weeks before you get into the mental swing of things. But it was pretty immediate that we started talking about it.''

And knowing that the cast would be mostly the same made that quick transition easier.

"For me,'' Porcello said, "it was a kind of a recipe that clicked and worked and you want to bottle some of that up. I remember why it worked and we constantly kept thinking about it. We had a group texting, communicating, and staying in that sort of chemistry that we had. It was more of a mental thing, trying not to think about what happened, remembering the things that made us good.''

The one danger is that, with nothing to shape up the clubhouse, the Sox could fall prey to complacency and get too comfortable about their past achievements.

But Porcello doesn't see that becoming a problem.

"That will be something we react to along the way,'' said Porcello. "If it does feel like it's starting to get stale and our play on the field starts to suffer, then the veteran guys in this clubhouse and (Alex Cora) and our leaders will find ways to make sure we're performing on the field and doing what we need to win games. We'll kind of react to that as we go along.

'I don't think complacency will ever be a problem in here. Everyone talks about that hangover and hopefully, we avoid that by being ready to play.''