The Red Sox only have two veteran position players under contract for next year - Pedroia and Ellsbury - and are reasonably concerned that they will not have a current-team negotiating advantage with Ellsbury at the end of the year because he is not really a teammate of anyone there. Middlebrooks is a lock to play third base, but six other daily line-up spots must be filled. The Red Sox are a big market team that cannot wheel out an April, 2013 lineup of Nava, Kalish, Inglesis, Saltalamacchia, Lavarnway, and Aviles like they can in places like Kansas City or Milwaukee or Pittsburgh, so they are going to have to buy about $100 million worth of groceries from the free agent store.
They'll buy a starting pitcher, too. They've got Lester and Buchholz signed, but their number three starter at the moment looks to be Lackey and they have no faith in the other half a dozen guys who filled out their rotation this year. As far as their bullpen is concerned, I think they will just go with what they have and expect better results.