FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The work begins before stretching, before batting practice, sometimes before the rest of their teammates have arrived.
On several artificial turf mats, about 50 feet in length, laid one after another on top of cement sidewalk in between the home clubhouse and the team's many practice fields, Red Sox infielders scramble to field balls shot out of a machine, scooping in-between hops and tricky bounces. Sometimes, they're down on one knee, other times they're positioned as they would be during a game.
Third base coach and infield instructor Carlos Febles runs the show, feeding baseballs into the machine and shouting instructions to the fielders. Most of the regular infielders rotate through the work station, some remaining to watch teammates go through their paces.
Now that Grapefruit League games are being played, the sessions are shorter, just a handful of minutes for each players. But earlier in camp, with more time and room, Felbes and other coaches directed a steady stream of balls off a fungo bat.
Mostly, the focus is on the left side of the infield: third baseman Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts. Both are superior hitters. Bogaerts can match any shortstop in the game when it comes to offensive production while Devers can comfortably be grouped with a short list of the game's best sluggers 25 years old or younger.
However, to varying degrees, they're each defensive liabilities. In each of his last three full seasons, Devers has committed 22 errors or more. Bogaerts, meanwhile, is far more sure-handed, but thanks to poor range at short, he's consistently rated at the bottom of the most defensive metrics.
Between Devers' errors and Bogaerts' lack of range, the Red Sox were among the worst teams in the game when it came to converting balls in play into outs. As cited by the The Boston Globe's Alex Speier, while the MLB average was just .241 on ground balls into play, against the Red Sox, that number jumped to .273. The Sox allowed 486 base hits on ground balls, while the average for all other MLB teams was 424.
Several Boston starters, meanwhile, had ERAs considerably higher than their FIPs, more evidence that the team's defensive play was a considerable handicap.
The signing of Trevor Story, a Gold Glove-caliber infielder, to play second base will help upgrade things. But it's the left side of the infield that is need of the most improvement.
It may seem naïve that two established major leaguers could improve their defensive profiles after a combined 14 seasons in the big leagues. But the Red Sox not only believe it's possible, but have already seen positive results. Through 14 games, the Red Sox have made a grand total of just two errors -- none by either Devers or Bogaerts.
"The thing I'm most excited about is the defense,'' said Alex Cora. "The third baseman is playing great defense, and we have guys moving around. They're doing in the mornings what they do every day and they've been very diligent about it.''
"Going into the offseason,'' said Febles, "something that we wanted was consistency. We had a lot of conversations about what we can do to have them be more consistent. We came out with different ideas and drills. And the way you create consistency is by working on the same things every day. That's exactly what we've been doing since Day 1 of spring training. They come in, ready to work every day because they know that's the only way they're going to get better.''
For Devers, much of the focus is on the mental part of the game. In the past, he's tended to make errors in bunches. In one particularly rough stretch last year he made five errors in the span of 12 days. Thus, for Febles, the task at hand has been to not only work on mechanics, but also, confidence.
"He's one of the guys who works harder than anybody on our club, to be honest,'' Febles said, "and he wants to be great. But at times, he makes an error and he gets mad and down on himself. To me, he's got to learn to slow the game down and get ready for the next one. You have to understand that you're going to make errors; it's part of the game. It's all about how you bounce back from them. How you do that is (say), 'Hey, let's get ready for the next one.' And have a short memory.''
Devers has also had the habit of rushing throws when he doesn't need to, so Febles has been concentrating on the third baseman's internal clock.
"That's going to be the key,'' predicted Febles. "He's been great so far this spring on that and I expect nothing less than him getting better and better. But to me, it's more the mental thing and the ability to move on from (mistakes) and make sure that one error doesn't become two or three. It takes some guys longer than others to understand that. But he's on the right track. He's mature and he has a better understanding of what he needs to do.''
The challenges are different with Bogaerts, who converts balls he gets into outs, but who also doesn't get to enough balls.
"For Xander, pre-pitch (set-up) is going to be the key,'' said Febles. "If you're pre-pitch isn't good, then your first step quickness isn't going to be good, either, and your range isn't going to improve. If you're solid with your pre-pitch, and you have your timing so you can break quick, now your range has to improve. Everything he gets to is an out, but we want to spread (his range) a little more so that he can get to more balls on both sides.''
Febles rejects the notion that established big leaguers can't or won't get better as they age. Bogaerts will be 30 in October, but to Febles, he's far from a finished product.
"You see him make (great) plays. It's there,'' he said. "It's a matter of being more consistent. I feel you can always get better. You want to work within his area code. He's so athletic that he can get to more balls than he has.''
Febles is encouraged by what he's seen. He's seen good work habits being formed, confidence being lifted and the desire for improvement.
"They really want to make plays,'' Febles said. "And if you want to make plays, you're always going to be ready to make plays.''