FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Wednesday was not just any old day for Ron Roenicke.
Newly installed as the Red Sox' interim manager, Roenicke had to make some adjustments from his previous role as bench coach.
"I'm still kind of getting used to everything,'' he said a bit sheepishly. "I walked in this morning and I went to my usual locker (in the coach's room) and my clothes weren't there. They were over in the manager's office. So everything's a little different for me.''
When Roenicke went out with pitchers and catchers to oversee his first workout, some things felt a little off.
"It feels different because when I usually walk around, I want to go field ground balls and join in where they need me,'' he said. "today, I was like, "I think I better be over here in the bullpen and watch the guys throw.' That part, I forget. I'm walking around, doing my thing and then I forget, like, 'Oh, I probably shouldn't be here.' So that part was a little different.''
In time, the job will feel more natural to him. But at some point, Roenicke will have to start making some decisions about his roster and how he envisions using his personnel.
Roenicke has made no secret that he admired predecessor Alex Cora and the way he handled the job. Some things will be handled differently under Roenicke; on some issues, there won't be much change at all.
Here are a handful of topics.
- He's in favor of getting his starting pitchers more work this spring after the team stumbled badly out of the gate, perhaps as a result of a lighter Grapefruit League workload. "We did get off to a slow start last year and we've talked about it. We're going to make sure that they get their six starts in the spring. Last year, a couple of guys had five. I think it's important that we try to get them the six starts and make sure we try to get off to a better start than last year. That would be the ideal. It's hard to say whether we were wrong last year or not because we did the same thing basically the year before in '18 and it turned out great. But because we went long (in October in 2018) and guys had more innings than they were used to, we thought in our minds, if we back off maybe that's going to help. It didn't work last year, but it did work the year before.''
- The team needs to replace Mookie Betts in the leadoff spot in the lineup and Roenicke is considering giving Andrew Benintendi another shot at the job. "The leadoff spot is obviously important. I think Benny did learn something last year. I think he's capable of doing whatever we want to do with him. He is an on-base guy. He's also a hitter. He's not up there just swinging at everything. He takes pitches, he goes the other way, he's really just a pure hitter. If ends up there, I'm fine with him leading off. We'll have those discussions with him later when we start playing games and try to figure out how everybody fits in.'' In his introductory press conference Tuesday, Roenicke also mentioned Alex Verdugo as a possibility for the role.
- In need of a fifth starter, he's not ruling out using an opener. Thanks to some injuries last year in the final month of the season, the Sox used some relievers to start, but then didn't have someone to follow for the bulk of the innings -- the true definition of the opener concept. This time, Roenicke may be ready to experiment. "I think the opener is a possibility when you don't have your five guys that you really like. Obviously, Chaim (Bloom) is very familiar with it. And talking to him about it, it wasn't like 'Well, this is what we want to do.' It was 'What's the personnel we have and what's the best way to get these guys to perform at a level where we hope they can be?' He's OK if we go there, but if we can fill it with a fifth guy, he's OK if we don't go there. So I think we just kind of see where we end up at the end of camp. And if we have one day of an opener, we have one day. It's OK.''
- He'd like a more defined bullpen structure. Last year, Cora mixed-and-matched for the first half of the year before appointing Brandon Workman as a more traditional closer. Roenicke believes Brandon Workman will open this season in that same role. "I think with what (Workman) did last year he deserves that shot to be the closer. I think it's always more ideal if you have roles for those guys. But if you explain it right, sometimes those roles should change. Say we've got Darwinzon (Hernandez) and he's at the back end of the bullpen and we have Barnes there, too. If you go into the eighth inning and they've got two of three lefties and you know Darwinzon's a better fit, I like him in there. And it may end up being in the ninth inning. If it shows that you've got three righthanders coming up who don't hit righthanders that well and Workman is rested, he pitches the eighth and then you maybe go with Darwinzon in the ninth knowing that you have (Matt) Barnes backing him up. But so I don't think it always has to be automatic but I know mentally, these guys things handle things mentally if they know what's going on. If I have a discussion with someone earlier and say, 'You're our closer, but if I need someone to stop something in the eighth,' I think they're fine with that, too.''