Red Sox starter Jon Lester delivers a pitch during Thursday's practice in Fort Myers, Fla. AP PHOTO

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FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- The "no vacancy" sign is up for the Red Sox rotation.

With five veteran starters, the World Series champions have no openings. But if they did, there would be several outstanding young candidates competing for them -- and others not too far away.

Coming off a brilliant postseason, Jon Lester leads the starting staff after pitching a career-high 213 1-3 innings. Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Felix Doubront complete the group that should have little trouble weathering Ryan Dempster's decision not to play in 2014 for physical and personal reasons.

Brandon Workman heads the young group after a year in which he wasn't even in the major league camp yet went 6-3 with the Red Sox. Manager John Farrell showed faith by having him pitch the eighth inning -- he retired St. Louis in order -- of Boston's clinching Game 6 of the World Series.

The more pitching, the better.

"I don't think any of us have any false confidence or an embarrassment of riches because we've seen that pitching is a game of attrition," Farrell said Friday. "We went through 20-something relievers last year so we were fortunate, with the exception of maybe Clay's situation, we were relatively healthy in the rotation. But that can change in a moment's notice."

Like when Dempster surprised management about two weeks ago with his decision not to play the final year of his contract.

So the Red Sox added left-hander Chris Capuano to work in the bullpen and as insurance for the rotation.

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Red Sox will lean on Lester, deep rotation