The Red Sox could move from the Yankees’ main rival to, of all things, their mentors — at least when it comes to roster construction.
In fact, if Boston is successful this year, I wonder if many teams, including the Mets, will attempt to follow its blueprint — namely to aggressively attack the middle-class free-agent market and construct a deep, power-throwing bullpen.
Boston’s highest-profile reaction to its worst season in 52 years was firing Bobby Valentine after one season. But the Red Sox recognized the problems went beyond the manager’s office. The team collapsed to 69 wins last year largely because of depth issues in talent and, perhaps, character as well.
We may look back on the mega-deal last Aug. 25 with the Dodgers as Boston’s Herschel Walker trade. Boston obtained a couple of impressive prospect arms in Rubby De La Rosa and, especially, Allen Webster. But, even more vitally, they received a financial do-over.
By trading Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto, Boston saved roughly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars in future salaries. The Red Sox reinvested a good chunk of that this past offseason in a variety of ways.
They had requests for players such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, but retained them despite contract raises. They re-signed David Ortiz and Craig Breslow. They traded for Joel Hanrahan. And they were the most active team in free agency, inking seven outside free agents for $100 million.
So what were the Red Sox trying to do?
1. Avoid the super long-term deal. They did not want to repeat, say, the seven-year mistake with Carl Crawford. Instead, they were hyper-aggressive with the next-level free agent with their largest guarantee just three years at $39 million for Shane Victorino.
2. Address the depth issue. They wanted to make sure their own second and third tiers of talent were considerably better than last year to cope with the attrition of a season.
3. Address the character question. Part of this was resolved by excising players miserable in Boston such as Beckett and Crawford. But the Red Sox also imported noted good clubhouse presences such as Jonny Gomes, David Ross and Victorino.
4. Deepen the bullpen, especially with power arms. The pen remains the least expensive element on a team. But its relevance — especially in lowering the stress on a rotation — is substantial. So rather than trade pieces such as Alfredo Aceves and Andrew Bailey, the Red Sox kept them and added Hanrahan and Koji Uehara.
There are risks. Ortiz and free agent addition Stephen Drew are brittle and both began the season on the disabled list. Mike Napoli had his contract redone from a three-year $39 million deal to one year at $5 million because of a persistent hip ailment. Victorino appeared in steep decline last year. Ryan Dempster, another free-agent sign, has had career trouble against the AL East.
Still, this is an intriguing experiment Boston, and the rest of the sport is watching.
For the Red Sox’s downfall revolved around becoming top-heavy in mega-contracts for too many declining veterans. The organization had surrendered to the pressures of keeping expensive seats filled and making sure the team-owned network had a star-laden product to sell. Does that sound familiar? YES, it does.
The Red Sox may not have aired their desires quite as publicly as the Yankees, but they also badly want to stay under the luxury-tax threshold. Boston almost certainly will do so by spreading money around on what it sees as above-average quantity rather than a star or two. That also makes future payrolls more manageable.
The Yankees probably cannot make a Herschel Walker trade to avoid their own top-heavy ways. No team is taking Alex Rodriguez. CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira have no-trade clauses and have been adamant about staying Yankees.
The Yankees could trade Robinson Cano to lower payroll and increase their young talent base. But Cano’s high-profile change of agents away from Scott Boras suggests the Yankees are about to add yet another $20 million-plus contract for the long haul.
Thus, if the Yankees actually are to get under the $189 million threshold for next year, they might just have roughly $70 million more to spend on the rest of the roster. Therefore, to stay contenders, they might have to be aggressive on that second tier of free agents.
The Yankees mostly eschewed the strategy this past offseason, as they let secondary pieces they desired such as Russell Martin, Jeff Keppinger, Nate Schierholz and Scott Hairston sign elsewhere. The one player they did sign from that subsection was Kevin Youkilis, who in a roundabout way was available because Will Middlebrooks had taken his job in Boston.
Middlebrooks became a Red Sox lineup fixture last year, and Jackie Bradley Jr. might be on the way to doing so this year. The introduction of youngsters helps lower the costs and raise the energy.
Middlebrooks and Bradley both project to be above-average players. The Yankees are going to need youngsters such as Michael Pineda, Tyler Austin and Slade Heathcott to offer something similar by the beginning of next year or their chances of staying under $189 million and having a contender just about evaporate.
Look, the Yankees have played follow-the-Red Sox already in recent times. Remember that when general manager Brian Cashman received greater authority in 2005, he went heavy on analytics, feeling Boston had a several-year head start in this area and was a better organization because of it.
So maybe the Red Sox will be used as models again. Which is why there is reason for Yankees fans to keep an eye on the Red Sox this season — beyond just The Rivalry.
joel.sherman@nypost.com