FORT MYERS, Fla. — The canvas across from the Red Sox clubhouse depicting great Red Sox players of the past is a reminder that one player in particular, David Ortiz, won’t be here this year — at least not as a No. 3 or No. 4 hitter, but in an instructional role.

In the offseason, John Farrell, Dave Dombrowski, and the Red Sox staff discussed the crucial topic of replacing Ortiz in the lineup. They came to the conclusion that replacing him with Edwin Encarnacion and flirting with overage on the luxury tax would be too costly and possibly block a future star such as Sam Travis or Rafael Devers from getting a shot. Those two should be ready any time between this season (in Travis’s case) and next season (in Devers’s case).

“Philosophically, unless you had a guy who was a force like David, you’d like to be able to rotate people in and out of there,’’ said Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations. “For us, having a guy like Hanley [Ramirez], who likes to DH, allows us to use him there a lot.

“But it also gives you a chance to get players off their legs. A Dustin Pedroia could DH, or even a Mookie [Betts] or Jackie Bradley Jr. could get a rest from the field sometime. That’s our thought process behind it.’’

“You can’t replace a guy like [Ortiz],’’ said super-utility man Brock Holt. “The season he had for us last year when he was one of the best offensive players in baseball, to take that out of the middle of the lineup is something we’re obviously going to miss.

“But we have guys that can step up. Nobody is going to be David Ortiz, but hopefully we can do enough to score more runs than the other guys.’’

The Red Sox lineup, on paper, doesn’t look bad. Here’s a guess at what the primary lineup may look like:

Dustin Pedroia 2B

Andrew Benintendi LF

Mookie Betts RF

Hanley Ramirez DH

Xander Bogaerts SS

Pablo Sandoval 3B

Jackie Bradley Jr. CF

Mitch Moreland 1B

Sandy Leon C

Looks good, right?

There’s no legitimate leadoff man. Pedroia may have to do it, even though he’s not the ideal choice. Benintendi could emerge as a possible leadoff man. Perhaps Bradley. When Holt is in the lineup, he could take the top spot. It’s going to be increasingly harder to get Holt playing time unless Benintendi and Sandoval falter.

Moreland has left-field power, so the Red Sox believe he’ll be a better hitter at Fenway Park, though Texas wasn’t exactly a bad place to hit, and Moreland suffered at the plate last season.

They also have the righthanded-hitting Chris Young. He will likely get time in left against tough lefthanded pitchers or even center to spell Bradley a time or two.

So can the Red Sox pull this off offensively? Does the amped-up starting rotation mean that they won’t need as much run production?

Certainly the opposition has to fear Betts, the MVP runner-up in the American League, and Ramirez when he’s on a roll. But let’s face it, the monster in the lineup always was Ortiz. He was the feared hitter. He was the one you pitched around. He was the one that helped others in the lineup get better.

Will that void affect the rest of the lineup?

“Everyone looked to David to get the big hit,’’ said Holt. “We’re obviously going to miss him.

“I think everyone would want to him to change his mind. With him in our lineup, we’re a better team. I don’t think he’s going to do that.

“He’s had a great career and he has the right to retire. It’s up to us now to make our lineup work.’’

The Red Sox are expecting a lot from Benintendi. He would appear to be a perfect No. 2 hitter, but that might be an aggressive move this early in his career.

Bogaerts could move back to that spot, but he would be best served being in a power spot.

We all know that lineup talk can be overrated, but there are analytics that support a player hitting in a certain spot to optimize his skills, and the Red Sox will use them as Farrell configures his daily lineups.

Bradley is interesting in that he showed lefthanded power last season. Can the Red Sox continue to expect 25-30 homers from their star defensive player? If he can do that and cut down on his strikeouts — which is his goal this season — that’s another hitter who can help fill the Ortiz void.

Players have commented that it felt strange walking into the clubhouse the last few days and not seeing Ortiz’s locker, but as Holt pointed out, “I think at some point in camp we’re going to see David. I’m sure he’ll be around doing something.

“He was a leader for us. We looked to him for a lot of support. We have Pedey now, who is very vocal and I know he can take on the leadership thing. We’re not worried about that.

“We have really talented hitters, and it’s up to us to now figure out how we’re going to go forward. We were all excited to hear about getting Chris Sale. We were all on a text messaging link and all of us were so excited to be adding a guy of that caliber to [Rick] Porcello and [David] Price.’’

This might be the first spring training story about replacing Ortiz and concern about the lineup, but it won’t be the last.

It will be a constant topic on days when the Sox are producing and on days when they aren’t.

We won’t find out if management made the right call on not adding a big bopper until early in the season. Those star pitchers need run support, and that was easier with Ortiz.

And so we begin life without Big Papi.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.