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For the Red Sox, the 2024 season is one in which a lot of responsibility is going to be placed on their young core.

This is particularly true when it comes to the starting rotation, as Nick Pivetta is the only member of the team’s starting five who has pitched more than 160 innings in a Major League season.

On the position-player side, the youthful quartet of Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu is set to take on more prominent roles, and they will eventually be joined by 23-year-old second baseman Vaughn Grissom, who will start the season on the injured list but hopes to return before April is over.

This isn’t to say manager Alex Cora doesn’t have some key veterans at his disposal. The left side of the infield will be patrolled by star third baseman Rafael Devers and well-rounded shortstop Trevor Story. Can the Sox contend? It depends largely on how much the young players step up. Cora is looking forward to overseeing the process.

“It's different compared to previous years,” said Cora. “This team is going to be fun to manage. We're gonna do a lot of stuff that is probably different than in the past. We know what people think about us, but athleticism and youth helped [the Orioles] make it to the playoffs last year.

“So hopefully we can accomplish that. We're not shying away from our goals. We just have to keep going. It’s been fun. It's refreshing. It's good to see good athletes out there making plays and moving around and adjusting to everything that we're throwing at them. And I think it's been solid so far.”

Here is a categorical look at what is ahead for the 2024 Sox.

What needs to go right? Defense needs to be dependable
Defense, or lack thereof, was a huge problem for the Red Sox last season, making life tough on the pitching staff. If the club can stop giving away outs, its core of young pitchers has a better chance of taking a step forward this season. One thing that will help is having Story healthy from the start. The Sox also need more consistency at the corners from Devers and Casas than they got a year ago. The outfield defense should be athletic and a strongpoint of the club, with Duran, Rafaela, Tyler O’Neill and Abreu playing important roles.

Great unknown: Will the rotation be good enough?
When this offseason started, the expectation was that the Red Sox were going to add to a rotation that finished 22nd in the Majors in ERA last season. It turns out that the one addition they made -- righty Lucas Giolito -- is already lost for the season following a UCL repair on his right elbow. Chris Sale was traded to Atlanta and James Paxton left via free agency. This leaves the Sox with a rotation in which Pivetta is the lone veteran and four pitchers in their mid-20s (Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck) must take steps forward for the club to have a realistic chance to contend.

Team MVP will be ... Devers
The slugger is the team’s most impactful player and one of the most productive corner infielders in the game. Devers spent the spring regaining his opposite-field stroke, which could allow him to be more consistent than he was last year.

Team Cy Young will be ... Bello
In a perfect world, Bello would have a pitcher like Giolito in front of him to take some of the pressure off. But life isn’t perfect, and Bello is being asked to carry a heavy load in his second Major League season. He just might have the arsenal and the mental toughness to pull it off. The Red Sox showed their faith in the talented righty by recently signing him to a six-year contract extension that includes an option for a seventh season.

Bold prediction
O’Neill will be more like the player he was in 2021, when he finished eighth in the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award voting, than the injury-plagued underperformer he was the last two seasons. O’Neill has worked hard to become more pliable so he can withstand the rigors of a full season.