Will Red Sox prospects make big impact in 2015?

By Maureen Mullen/Special for USA TODAY Sports

BOSTON - At this point a year ago, the Boston Red Sox were heading into spring training with a crop of young players, including shortstop Xander Bogaerts and center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who were among the most heralded — and hyped — in the organization's history.

Neither lived up to expectations.

Bogaerts hit .240 with a .362 slugging percentage; Bradley appeared to go from a five-tool player to a one-dimensional one, hitting .198.

Bogaerts (No. 3 on USA TODAY Sports' 2014 100 Names You Need to Know list) figures to be the starting shortstop this season; Bradley (No. 12 in 2014) remains an enigma.

Collectively, Red Sox players 21 or younger totaled 196 games and 192 starts, the highest such numbers for an American League team since the 2003 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Nearly every one of them struggled at the big-league level. They proved to be one of the reasons Boston was buried in the AL East.

The Red Sox, who have a major league-high nine players on this year's 100 Names You Need to Know list, enter the season after assessing their development process.

"Whether it's in the question about how much time is being spent in the minor leagues or a certain level, or is there something in the transition that we can do better differently. Or a combination of things," general manager Ben Cherington said after the season. "We haven't come with a silver bullet to say, 'We're going to do this next year, and this will fix the problem.' We still believe in our young players, but, yeah, we have to learn something from what's happened."

Mookie Betts (No. 2 on this year's list) leads this year's crop of young players on whom the Red Sox will lean for impact. Betts, 22, was a fifth-round pick who had never played any position other than second base or shortstop in the minors before last season. In 52 games with the Red Sox in 2014, though, he hit .291/.368/.444 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage), playing second base, center field and right field.

He is expected to be the starting right fielder on opening day and is the leading candidate to be the leadoff hitter, if he isn't packaged in a deal for an ace before then.

Christian Vazquez (No. 13), who gained valuable experience last season after A.J. Pierzynski was released in July, is expected to be the opening-day catcher. Left-handers Henry Owens and Brian Johnson (Nos. 11 and 21), although not expected to be on the staff for opening day, likely will be called upon during the season to help, as will catcher Blake Swihart (No. 83).

Perhaps expectations, though, will be highest for Rusney Castillo (No. 20). The 27-year-old Cuban got a seven-year, $72.5million deal in August and is expected to be the opening-day center fielder.

"I'm obviously preparing myself and doing everything I can to be in a good place to be a regular everyday player," says Castillo, who played in the Arizona Fall League and the Puerto Rican winter league, through a team interpreter.

Boston went from worst to first, winning the 2013 World Series. But that team had a heavy veteran influence. If the Red Sox are to do it again, their young players could be central to that turnaround.

"We all shared the responsibility for how things finished up," manager John Farrell says. "No one liked it, and that has been a motivator for all of us as we review what took place, as we review the job that everyone individually and collectively performed."

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