The postseason is in full swing, but for the Red Sox, so is the offseason.

General manager Ben Cherington was surveying the team’s young players in instructional league in Fort Myers, Florida, last week, organizational meetings will soon be held, free agency begins as soon as the World Series ends and the general manager meetings are just over a month away.

With that in mind, we offer a position-by-position blog series on the Sox, providing a snapshot of their performance in 2014 and an outlook for 2015.

We open with the Sox starting pitching.

Performance this season:

Record: 50-64

ERA (AL rank): 4.36, 13th

Quality starts (6 IP minimum, 3 ER or less): 87, 5th

Average innings pitched per start: 6, 6th

Strikeouts per nine: 7.06, 10th

WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched): 1.35, 12th

Strikeouts to walks ratio: 2.27, 14th

Number of starters used: 11

Starters by ERA: Steven Wright 0-1, 0.00; Jon Lester 10-7, 2.52; John Lackey 11-7, 3.60; Joe Kelly 4-2, 4.11; Rubby De La Rosa 4-8, 4.50; Jake Peavy 1-9, 4.72; Anthony Ranaudo 4-3, 4.81; Allen Webster 5-3, 5.03; Felix Doubront 2-4, 5.19; Clay Buchholz 8-11 5.34; Brandon Workman 1-9, 5.36.

Best performance: Jon Lester

Worst performance: Brandon Workman

Biggest surprise: Joe Kelly, mostly because he had missed three months with a hamstring injury and was thus an unknown quantity.

Biggest disappointment: Clay Buchholz, who had to be shut down for nearly a month at the end of May for a reboot and had a plus-6 ERA at the All-Star break.

Summary: The Red Sox rotation underwent a complete makeover at the trading deadline, with the Sox trading away Jon Lester, John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Felix Doubront, and acquiring one big league starter, Joe Kelly, in return. The starters’ ERA at the trading deadline was 4.09; over the season’s final two months, it was 4.93, as manager John Farrell auditioned a number of rookie starters to get an early fix on which pitchers might be able to crack the rotation in 2015.

Potential free-agent targets: Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, James Shields, Francisco Liriano, Brandon McCarthy, Justin Masterson.

Potential trade targets: Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, Yovani Gallardo, Jeff Samardzija.

Prospects in the system: Henry Owens, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brian Johnson.

Outlook for 2015: Only Buchholz and Kelly are assured spots in the rotation for 2015. The Sox have signaled their intentions to fill the top two spots in the rotation via free-agent signings or trades; there will be an open competition in spring training for the fifth spot in the rotation. Boston’s dream scenario is for Jon Lester to re-sign with the club. Worst case scenario would be to miss out on the Big Three of Lester, Scherzer and Shields in free agency, and fail to make a deal for Hamels. That can’t happen.

A scout’s take: There are no doubts about Buchholz’s stuff; it’s very good. But for me, he’s at best a No. 3 because he simply hasn’t proven durable. His best season he threw 189 innings. Between injuries and inconsistency, you just can’t trust he’ll give you more than 170-180 innings, which makes him a No. 3 at best. It’s no different than when you study the racing form to pick a horse; if his history shows that he’s always breaking down or has trouble in this or that setting, what are the odds that he’s going to give you what you want? Not very good.

I like Joe Kelly’s stuff: mid-to-upper 90s velocity, flashed a real good breaking ball, a good changeup, late life on his fastball -- he has enough stuff to be on the higher end of your rotation. He’s got the whole package: size, a pitcher’s build. But he still has to put innings on his pedigree. It’s easy to identify guys with electric stuff, but it takes a special guy to log 200-plus innings. Can he change speeds, pitch in a lesser gear, compete when he’s not healthy? All those things.

Of the young guys the Red Sox looked at this season, De La Rosa for me is the guy who still stands out. The other guys all have a variety of issues that leave you thinking they may not be reliable enough to be considered a back-end starter next year. De La Rosa has come a long way in his command, ability to change speeds, and he may have the best raw stuff.

Webster has good stuff, but he has trouble executing pitches. Bases on balls have gotten in the way, executing pitches have gotten in the way. Maybe it will show itself in spring training, but the trust factor is not there.

Workman as a starter had a sharp dropoff in stuff compared with as a reliever. He had lesser velocity and hasn’t shown the same crispness in his other pitches as he did out of the pen. His stuff seems to play better out of the pen.

Ranaudo, I was actually disappointed; I was expecting more. The stuff was mediocre; he has to be perfect with all his pitches. He showed good stuff only in flashes. I have to stress it was a small sample size, but for now, he still looks like an inventory guy for the back end of the rotation. A lot of his balls were elevated in the zone, and his velocity was mediocre. That doesn’t mean he can’t eventually be a No. 4 or No. 5, but nothing jumps out at you right now.

I only saw Barnes in relief, so I don’t know how his velocity would carry as a starter.

I’ve seen Owens in spring training and in the minor leagues, and he was impressive. His stuff is deceptive; hitters don’t see him well. Even with his size, he’s able to keep his arm, the legs, all the pieces in sync. He has the ability to throw his breaking ball and changeup over the plate, and his fastball velocity is the type where it looks like it gets to the plate quicker than it does. He’s a strike thrower. There are a lot of interesting things about him: He has a good feel, he’s able to pitch backward, he’s left-handed with size and deception. I suspect the Red Sox will take a long look at him this spring. He’s got a chance to be at least a No. 3.

I haven’t seen much of Eduardo Rodriguez, but he’s an interesting guy. He throws 94 with a couple of different off-speed pitches, his delivery doesn’t look bad, and I’ve heard his name a lot from other guys.