There are different ways of viewing the meaning of spring training, but one consideration typically overshadows all others. Ask any manager in spring training whether his camp is going well and his answer will begin, and sometimes end, with a description of the health of his club.

So what to make of a Red Sox team that seems likely to open its season with nine players on the disabled list?

To put that number in context: A year ago, the Royals sent just nine players to the DL all year. The Rays and White Sox both had just 10 total players land on the DL in 2011. The Tigers had 11. The two teams that played in the World Series, the Cardinals and Rangers, had a total of 13 players on the DL all year.

Health isn’t the be-all, end-all for good teams. The 2011 Yankees sent a total of 26 players to the DL, and still managed to have the best record in the American League.

Even so, the fashion in which the Sox broke camp in Fort Myers on Monday was somewhat ominous. On the way out the door, while it appeared that Josh Beckett would be fine for the start of the year despite what manager Bobby Valentine described as a thumb “situation,” the team may not be so fortunate regarding the status of closer Andrew Bailey.

Bailey was examined in Boston on Monday. According to a major league source, he immediately went from that appointment to Cleveland for an exam with Dr. Thomas Graham, the hand specialist whom the Sox used for a pair of surgeries (Kevin Youkilis, Jarrod Saltalamacchia) in 2010.

The need for an immediate second opinion suggests the possibility of an issue that could render Bailey unavailable for more than just a brief season-opening stretch. The Boston Globe reported that surgery is a likely outcome of that consultation.

Bailey thus rounds out the “DL Starting 9” for the Red Sox. Here’s the roll call of the players who appear likely to open the year on the shelf:

RHP Andrew Bailey (assuming his thumb requires a DL stint)
RHP Chris Carpenter (elbow surgery in March)
OF Carl Crawford (wrist surgery in January)
LHP Rich Hill (Tommy John surgery last June)
RHP Bobby Jenks (back surgery in January)
OF Ryan Kalish (shoulder surgery in December)
RHP John Lackey (Tommy John surgery in October)
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (Tommy John surgery in June)
LHP Andrew Miller (hamstring strain in March)

Of those injuries, most were anticipated entering spring training. None of the three Tommy John rehabbers were expected to pitch in the early months of 2012, if at all. Kalish’s need to rehab and then spend time in the minors made a first-half return unlikely from the beginning. Ditto Jenks, who is nowhere close to pitching.

Crawford was expected to be out until sometime around Opening Day; he might be delayed slightly in that projection, but the Sox had time to plan for the contingency of his absence in signing Cody Ross.

Carpenter’s need for a cleanup of his elbow came as a surprise, but he wasn’t projected as anything more than a minor league relief depth option at the start of the year. Miller’s hamstring tweak was unexpected, though not destabilizing, since his role on the 2012 team was undefined entering camp.

Realistically, of the first players likely to open the year on the DL, the most impactful was Crawford, whose absence will test the team’s outfield depth in the early weeks of the year. Still, the Sox had already achieved a level of comfort with the idea that he could miss days to weeks at the start of the year.

Bailey’s late-spring injury was the one true bolt from the blue. He would represent the most destabilizing member of the Red Sox’ nine-deep DL squad, since the team would have to restructure its entire bullpen pecking order in the absence of the closer, especially if he requires surgery that would sideline him for multiple months.

But….

While the Sox were caught by surprise by this particular injury (one major league source noted that Bailey has never been known to have either hand or thumb issues in his career), the idea that the 27-year-old was injury-prone was not a shock. It was for that reason that the Sox built a bullpen with potential alternatives to Bailey. The acquisition of Mark Melancon was a part of that equation. The return to the bullpen of Alfredo Aceves was another.

And, if the late innings prove a minefield in the early stages of the season and the rotation proves deep (particularly with right-hander Aaron Cook stashed in Triple-A in April), then the Sox could eventually entertain the idea of shifting either Daniel Bard or Felix Doubront back to the bullpen. With Bard in particular, such a move may be a matter of when-not-if this year given the team’s desire to cap his innings increase.

So, there are alternatives to Bailey. Certainly, the Sox are a better team with the right-hander than without him, but they have planned for his absence.

Sox manager Bobby Valentine and GM Ben Cherington noted many times during the offseason that the 2011 World Series champion Cardinals opened the year with Ryan Franklin as their closer; Jason Motte did not assume that role until September, but then secured the Cardinals’ passage through the ninth inning in October.

Even so, the arrival of an unexpected injury on the threshold of the 2012 regular season is hardly the sort of harbinger that the Sox might have wanted. A team whose playoff hopes in the last two years were sabotaged in no small part by injuries will begin the year with more than 20 percent of its 40-man roster on the disabled list.

For a team that needs a strong start to help leave behind the dialogue of last year’s spiraling finish, that prospect -- just days removed from Opening Day -- is hardly ideal.