FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In the turbulent 1960s, as the counter-culture emerged and the generation gap widened, cynical hippies issued a warning: "Don't trust anyone over 30.''
The Red Sox, however, have no choice for 2023.
It's impossible to know exactly what the team's roster will look like for Opening Day, but for now, the Red Sox figure to have one of the oldest rosters in the game. Among their projected starting nine, three players are in their 30s, led by DH Justin Turner, who is 38. That will bring the lineup's average age to just over 29. That figure would have registered as one of the five oldest clubs in the game last season.
But it's the pitching staff where the Red Sox are really showing their age. On Opening Day, fully 60 percent of the starting rotation will be 34 or older, led by Corey Kluber, who will turn 37 two weeks into the season. Nick Pivetta turned 30 earlier this month.
The bullpen is similarly long in the tooth, with new closer Kenley Jansen is 35 and primary set-up man Chris Martin 36. Other 30-and-over contributors are Ryan Brasier (36), Richard Bleier (36 in April), and Joely Rodriguez (31).
"In a vacuum, (having an older team) is not something that we aimed for,'' said chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. "We know that a number of players that we added this offseason, and even some that were already on-hand, were definitely older than league average. In terms of looking at what they're going to do in our uniform, it's obviously something we factor in.
"But they wouldn't be here if we didn't see a lot of reasons to think that they were going to perform at a high level.''
Before the Sox begin to weigh the risks of an older roster, they're quick to point to some positives. Older players, by definition, have more experience and can be good resources to the younger players on the roster.
"Generally speaking,'' Bloom said, "when you have older players, there's a lot of beneficial things you add in terms of experience and having been in some of these situations and how to navigate them. But yes, you tend to take on some performance and injury risk, too, and that's something we have to factor in.''
The new veterans from the Dodgers -- Jansen and Turner -- have plenty of postseason experience and were part of a championship team in 2020. So, too, was Jansen, who spent last year with Atlanta, another successful franchise. Both Kluber and center fielder Adam Duvall have been part of pennant-winning teams.
"Every year I've been here,' said Bloom, "we have generally looked to bring in players who have won. It's not everything. Talent is the biggest driver and there's plenty of players who haven't won yet, but are perfectly capable of doing it. But it is a nice thing to add to the clubhouse. It doesn't drive the evaluation, but it is something you look at.''
Beyond the intangibles that come with winning backgrounds, the Sox will have to be careful with the workload with a number of additions. The Red Sox believe some of the depth and flexibility they have will aid them in keeping the older players healthy.
At DH, for instance, the Sox can supplement Turner by giving some at-bats to Rafael Devers, Alex Verdugo and Masataka Yoshida. At short, the 31-year-old Kiké Hernandez can occasionally give way to either Yu Chang or Adalberto Mondesi. And in center, Duvall can get some time off with Rob Refsnyder spelling him.
"Ideally,'' said Bloom, "if we do a good job with this, we'll have more and more young players establish themselves in the big leagues and that average age will come down -- not because we engineered it that way, but because we keep adding young players to the core.''
It helps, too, that sports science has come a long way. Technology can alert the training staff when players are fatigued, and thus more vulnerable to injury. The key is to anticipate when it comes to determining when a veteran player might need a day or two off.
"(Advancement in training methods) has certainly provided players who want to engage with this stuff and really helped up their game in terms of how they take care of themselves to do so in a more sophisticated way,'' said Bloom. "For us, when we're trying to make these decisions, it's helped us to look at where players are at physically. We might see a guy who's 35 who we think has a lot less medical risk than someone who's 28, based on just understanding some of what's unique to them a little bit better.
"All those are calculated gambles. Sometimes, you can have somebody who you think is a near lock to miss time and they make it through the whole season without incident. And you can have someone who you think will be durable and it doesn't happen. There's no certainty to any of this. But I think what it's helped us do is make more educated decisions.''
It's incumbent upon all players, regardless of age, to get ahead of potential physical setbacks. When they feel tightness or soreness, they're encouraged to seek treatment proactively.
"This is a place where there is no stigma attached to going to the training room,'' said Bloom. "There are environments in baseball where going to the training room means 'I'm hurt...I have a problem.'' Here, we view it as, they're there to keep you on the field. That's part of the culture of the medical staff -- they're willing to put in an enormous amount of individualized time and energy to get players ready to play. And if we do that well, we won't have them going in because they're hurt quite as much.''
If there's a potential trouble spot, it's the rotation, with four potential pitchers 30 or older, and three of those pitchers having missed significant time in recent years.
"It definitely adds some volatility,'' admitted Bloom. "I like that we have a really high top end. It's really just about crafting programs to get everybody in a situation that they need to be.''
For instance, Kluber last year backed off some of his between-start work and was able to make every start over the course of the season. And at the very least, the existence of additional starter options -- the Sox have nine pitchers in camp who've started big league games before -- can help mitigate some of the age of the Big Three.