FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A top offense -- like the Red Sox were in 2018-19 and failed to be last year -- isn't always the product of gaudy stats.

Sometimes it is about doing the little things -- particularly with a runner on third with less than two outs. That is when it is time to get that key sacrifice fly. Or even hit the ball to the right side with less than two outs to get the run home.

The 2020 Red Sox ranked 24th in the Majors with a .254 average with runners in scoring position and less than two outs. They were 17th in RBIs in those circumstances with 107.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora believes that his team's ability to improve in that area could play a big role in where they finish in the American League East this season.

Cora knows he has some players on his roster who are strikeout-prone hitters. But he doesn't want to see what he refers to as "bad strikeouts."

"Infield back, man at third, one out and you don't put the ball in play with two strikes, that's not just another strikeout. That's a bad strikeout," said Cora. "So you have to put that ball in play. So there's certain situations that, I think, over the course of the season, you get like 30 at-bats, 35 at-bats, probably with men at third and less than two outs."

In those situations, Cora is going to expect a selfless approach.

"And the way we're going to be preaching this because we struggled last year offensively with men in scoring position is that those 30 at-bats, surrender to the team," said Cora "Those are team at-bats. Just put the ball in play. Do something to get that guy in.

"The rest of them, 600, 500 at-bats, whatever you're going to do, 'Hey, do your thing.' If your numbers are where they're supposed to, it contributes. There's X amount of at-bats that we want them to give to us. That's men at third with less than two outs.

"We're going to be preaching that. That's not only [Bobby] Dalbec, it's Christian [Vázquez], it's J.D. [Martinez], it's Xander [Bogaerts] and everybody in the lineup. You know, there's going to be 30 at-bats that they're going to mean a lot to us. And that's going to be the difference between probably winning 84 games or 94 games. And that 10-game difference, that's a lot in this division. It's a lot in the American League. So, yeah, the value of putting the ball in play, you know, it's not talked about too much and that's something we want."

Bullpen choices
The Red Sox appear poised to go with a 14-man pitching staff and 12 position players, which leaves a lot of competition in the bullpen.

There are some who are certain to make the team, including Matt Barnes, Adam Ottavino, Darwinzon Hernandez, Josh Taylor, Hirokazu Sawamura and Matt Andriese. That means as many as three spots could be up for grabs.

Cora indicated his evaluation will be ongoing.

"I really don't know. I know there's a lot of guys that I have to see, personally, I want to learn from them," Cora said.

The bench will likely consist of backup catcher Kevin Plawecki, super-utility player Marwin Gonzalez (once his signing is official) and either Michael Chavis or Christian Arroyo. The defensive versatility of those last two bench players -- in addition to projected starter Enrique Hernández -- allows Cora and his staff the luxury of carrying so many arms.

"That's going to be great for us. If we can actually go with less position players and more pitchers, so be it," said Cora. "Because these guys are going to be part of this team and they're going to help us to create matchups. We can move it around defensively, and they're going to help us, too, to actually protect the pitching staff. It's odd to say it, but our position players will give us room, margin to maneuver our pitching staff.

"When we make those decisions, it's too soon obviously. There's going to be probably some spots that open up and we have some good ones, some good pitchers here that can do the job at the big-league level."

No captain -- but a GPC
With all the talk about the leadership ability of Bogaerts in recent days, Cora was asked if he would consider naming a team captain.

The answer is no. Not even Dustin Pedroia, as notable a leader as the Red Sox have had over the last decade-plus, was ever a captain. Nor was David Ortiz.

Jason Varitek, who retired after the 2011 season, is the last captain the Red Sox had. In the offseason, Varitek was elevated to the role of game-planning coordinator on the Major League staff. And that allowed Cora to have a light-hearted moment when talking about the captain issue on Wednesday.

"We've got the GPC here, man -- the Game Planning Captain. We've got Tek," said Cora. "So he's the real El Capitan here. When I got here, we had Jason, he was a captain. He had the C. We'll make sure he's got the GPC now. I don't think we need that [from the players]. I think [Bogaerts] leads by example. He's a guy that everybody's going to look up to. I never thought of having a captain, but hey, nobody thought of having a GPC, and we've got one."

Under the lights
The Red Sox split up their workouts on Wednesday.

One group took the field at 3 p.m. ET, about six hours later than usual.

The other group -- which includes most of the team's key position players -- will take part in a 7 p.m. workout under the lights at JetBlue Park, which will be a made-for-television event on NESN.