FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – The Boston Red Sox still have plenty of power. Now they may have the pitching and defense to return to the World Series.

A team with a tradition of sluggers – from Ted Williams to Carl Yastrzemski to Jim Rice – rebuilt the AL’s worst bullpen and upgraded an infield by adding three Gold Glove winners.

The moves came in an offseason of upheaval in which general manager Theo Epstein stepped down then returned less than three months later, Manny Ramirez and David Wells asked to be traded and the shortstop and center field jobs were vacant for a long time.

But spring training begins Sunday with the first workout for pitchers and catchers and most of those issues have been resolved.

With clubhouse live wires Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar leaving as free agents, though, the team’s personality should be more subdued and may not be sorted out for some time. Boston did win its first World Series in 86 years in 2004, but was swept in the 2005 AL division series by the eventual champion Chicago White Sox.

Easygoing power hitters David Ortiz and Ramirez are still around, although they may not have to hit 40 homers each for a third straight season for Boston to contend again for a championship it failed to defend last year.

“Pitching and defense, that’s the whole name of the game,” new first baseman Kevin Youkilis said. “If somebody throws a shutout, all you need is one run to win a ball game. Plain and simple.”

Josh Beckett threw two shutouts for Florida in the 2003 postseason. Curt Schilling has 21 shutouts in his career but was sidelined much of last season with ankle problems. Barring health setbacks, they should lead a deep Red Sox rotation. Both arrived in camp early.

Their chances of adding to their shutout totals might increase if they get batters to hit grounders to the new left side of the infield, third baseman Mike Lowell and shortstop Alex Gonzalez, also former Marlins. First baseman J.T. Snow, who should share time at first base, has six Gold Gloves.

“There’s nothing better than when the ball’s hit to know that you have an out,” manager Terry Francona said. “We should be vastly better defensively.”

Gonzalez replaces Edgar Renteria, who had a career-high 30 errors in his only season with Boston. Lowell isn’t a definite defensive upgrade on Bill Mueller, now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but has hit for more power.

In center field, the defense could be better with a healthy and younger Coco Crisp replacing Damon, who was a very good fielder but had trouble throwing.

Besides Schilling and Beckett, the Red Sox have returning starters Tim Wakefield, Matt Clement and Bronson Arroyo. Jon Papelbon, very impressive in 17 appearances as a rookie, also could contend for a spot in the rotation.

Or, he be part of a bullpen headed by Mike Timlin, Keith Foulke, Julian Tavarez and Rudy Seanez with youngsters Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen having a shot at making the team.

The Red Sox say Foulke enters camp as the closer after knee problems contributed to his poor 2005 season.

“I think we’re great,” Papelbon said. “We’ve got a lot of veteran guys that have performed in the past and you can count on them day in and day out, and we’ve got a lot of young guys.

“I also think we’ve got a lot of versatile guys.”

Catcher Jason Varitek is very diligent about working with new pitchers but will miss about three weeks of spring training while playing for the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic. Timlin also is a member of that team and other Red Sox could play for other countries.

“It’s going to be a pretty big honor,” Timlin said.

Once Timlin returns, he can focus on the AL East where the Yankees and Toronto appear to have improved. Francona is confident that the Red Sox will be in the mix for the division title.

“Everybody comes into camp feeling optimistic,” he said. “I think we have a legitimate reason to be optimistic. Do we have question marks? Sure. So does everybody else.”

The Red Sox also answered some questions in the field.

“The game of baseball is not how many runs you can put up. It can 2-1, it could be 20-1, it doesn’t matter,” Youkilis said. “That’s the whole key, for us to pitch well, play defense and score the runs when we need to score the runs.”

AP-ES-02-18-06 1529EST