Now that the Red Sox have completed Year 2 of their Add-an-Ace program with last week’s trade for Chris Sale, it’s time to see if history offers a guide to what it means to have a three-headed monster atop a starting rotation.

With Sale, who has finished sixth or better in the American League Cy Young Award voting each of the last five seasons, 2012 Cy Young winner David Price and 2016 winner Rick Porcello topping the rotation, the Red Sox suddenly and inarguably have — on paper at least — the best starting three-headed monster in baseball.

But from a recent historical perspective, just how does this trio rank?

The answer may surprise you.

Frankly, they are in the back of a very talent-rich pack.

The historical ranking isn’t that important. Sale, Price and Porcello, after all, won’t be competing against the best of the past. The bigger question is does having the Big Three in any given season translate into wins and championships?

If your only gauge is winning a World Series, then, no, it is not the be-all, end-all. In the last 30 years, just two teams with such heralded trios have won a World Series.

But if you don’t hold your team to the highest standard every season and wish for a competitive contender that can reach the playoffs and also the World Series, then, yes, a Big Three does correlate quite positively. Over the past 30 years, 8-of-24 teams with higher-ranked top-three rotations than the 2017 Red Sox reached the World Series.

Based on the most recent measurement available, 2016 performance, unless another top-flight starter switches teams before the start of the 2017 season, the Red Sox trio will rank as the best in the game. Using FanGraphs’ WAR from 2016, Porcello (5.2), Price (4.5) and Sale (5.2 with the White Sox) add up to a 14.9 WAR.

In 2016, the closest trio to 14.9 was the Giants at 13.0 WAR, with Johnny Cueto (5.5), Madison Bumgarner (4.9) and Jeff Samardzija (2.6). The Red Sox, with Porcello, Price and Steven Wright (2.8) were in a three-way tie for second-best WAR at 12.5. Also at 12.5 were the Mets (with Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Bartolo Colon) and the Cubs (with Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta).

So that means Sale-Porcello-Price (S-P-P) project as the best trio in the game, at least until the 2017 season plays itself out.

But once you start to peer back into baseball history, it does not take long at all to find other teams that have outperformed that 14.9 combined WAR that the Sox trio will take into 2017.

The 2015 Cubs clocked in at 15.8 combined WAR with Arrieta, Lester and Hendricks and two seasons before that, when current Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski was with Detroit, he assembled a rotational top three of Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez and Justin Verlander that posted a 17.0 WAR.

Going back to 1986, 24 teams had their top three starters combine to post a WAR that exceeded the 14.9 S-P-P standard. Eight of every 10 seasons on average, a team has seen its top three starters post a better combined WAR than 14.9.

That’s quite often.

Just for fun, let’s use the peak WAR of their careers for Sale, Porcello and Price and pretend as if each of them is going to repeat that performance. Price leads the way with his 6.4 WAR of 2015, then it’s Sale at 6.2 (2015) and Porcello’s 5.2 from this year. That jacks up their total to 17.8, which still lands them only eighth out of that list of 24 teams. That’s not chopped liver, but it is a reminder that we all need to temper our hype when it comes to ranking this trio historically.

One trio that comes to mind, Oakland’s Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito may be a good comparison — the best season those three mustered was 2001, when they reached 15.1. In 2003 they finished at 14.7. Fans of the Red Sox would take that S-P-P performance of 14.9, but it still falls short of many others.

Even better than the 2011 Phillies rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels (20.0 WAR) was the 2002 Diamondbacks, whose top three of Curt Schilling (9.4), Randy Johnson (8.1) and Miguel Batista (3.1) pulled off a 20.6 WAR — and lost in the Division Series. Schilling and Johnson are in the discussion for the best tandem ever. The year before, Johnson posted a 9.7 WAR, while Schilling was at 7.2, which makes for a combined 16.9, well above S-P-P’s 14.9, and that’s before Albie Lopez’ third-best 1.6 WAR is factored in.

Siting atop the recent list is the 1996 Braves, whose best trio of John Smoltz (8.4), Greg Maddux (7.8) and Tom Glavine (5.3) combined for a 21.5 WAR. They lost that World Series to the Yankees in six games. The year before, when Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine led the Atlanta Braves to their first and only world championship, the three aces posted a modest 16.8 combined WAR.

If you’re curious about where the three Red Sox world championship teams checked in according to FanGraphs’ WAR, it breaks down like this: 2004: 14.7 (Schilling, Pedro Martinez and Bronson Arroyo); 2007: 10.1 (Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Schilling) and 2013: 8.1 (Lester, Clay Buchholz and John Lackey).

Of the 24 teams to post better combined WARs from their top three starters over the last 30 years, two won championships, six lost World Series, and 22 of the 24 teams reached the playoffs. Only a much more detailed analysis, one that takes into account teams’ respective lineups and defenses, and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition would give the truest read to the worth of a top-heavy rotation.

Obviously the front three of the Red Sox rotation is special, tops in the game right now, but it’s also nowhere near one of the best assembled. What counts is that Sale’s addition can only help their cause. What it cannot do is guarantee anything.

Smith breaks ceiling

Congratulations to Claire Smith, who became the first female winner of the Spink Award honoring her groundbreaking career covering baseball. Smith, who will be honored at Cooperstown, N.Y., next July, was the first African-American female to cover baseball on a daily basis. She began her baseball reporting career with the Hartford Courant in 1982, and in 1984, when the Padres attempted to kick her out of the clubhouse while doing her job, Major League Baseball took control of media credentialing and access from clubs.

At the winter meetings last week near Washington, as her name was announced to a standing ovation from fellow writers, Smith made a point to call up the small number of other female baseball reporters to join her. . . .

At the winter meetings, another landmark came when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted to begin making public all Hall of Fame ballots seven days after the election results are announced each January. The welcome switch to full transparency will begin with the Class of 2018.