FORT MYERS, Fla. – It feels like being the new kid in school, Vaughn Grissom said of his first offseason and spring training with the Red Sox.

“It’s been awesome,” he told the Herald on Saturday. “It’s definitely a new group, so it’s different, but it’s everything I expected it to be, so it’s pretty cool.”

What’s different, besides the obvious: location, teammates, uniform? His new manager’s leadership style, for one thing.

“He’s cool,” Grissom said of Alex Cora. “He’s definitely different than (Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker). He’s more vocal, he’ll say things like that.”

“That” would be Cora announcing to the media that he’s going to get every chance to be the everyday second baseman. Grissom heard about it through the grapevine, then immediately went back to business as usual.

“I don’t take none of it to heart, I don’t try to lean on any of that,” Grissom responded. “I still gotta go and get mine. Nothing’s given.”

As he grew up and began his professional career, he most looked up to Ben Zobrist, who spent 14 years playing second base, shortstop, and right-field in the Majors and won a World Series with the 2016 Chicago Cubs, and career Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, who’s entering his 14th season in San Francisco.

“I know (Zobrist) played kind of, everywhere, but for the most part he was in the infield,” said Grissom. “Also Crawford was a big guy for me. But I would definitely put Ben Zobrist up there. He’s a sleeper (pick).”

Grissom accumulated 64 career big-league games over the previous two seasons with the Braves. He hit fairly well – .287 with a .746 OPS – but was blocked from starting jobs by a Braves infield already loaded with talent. Thus, he came to be the trade return for Chris Sale just before the new year.

At first, the gravity of being exchanged for the pitcher who finished off the 2018 World Series and meant so much to the organization didn’t really register.

“I didn’t even really think about it when it first happened,” Grissom said. “I hope this doesn’t get taken the wrong way, but I didn’t even realize, didn’t even think about the Chris Sale thing. Just that I got traded, didn’t I? Obviously people were like, ‘Oh, you got traded for Chris Sale!”

“It doesn’t really matter,” he continued, “You still gotta earn your job, you still gotta earn your keep around here. You can get traded for anything, and you can still (expletive) the bed.”

He began the efforts to earn his keep early. Within the first month after the trade, he attended Trevor Story’s mini-camp in Texas, Red Sox Rookie Development Program in Boston, and Winter Weekend.

“It’s a new group, so we definitely gotta gel together,” he said. “That happens naturally, that’s not something that comes from like, we’re just together. It’s a camaraderie thing, we gotta get together.”

Beginning to build a relationship with Story right away was a priority.

“To be able to meet Story early on, it definitely is super valuable,” Grissom said. “He’s a veteran on this team and he has the experience and the knowledge. It’s super important for someone like me to pick his brain.”

As if on cue, Story walked by on his way to his spot a few lockers away.

“Trevor, what’s the biggest thing I learned from you so far?” Grissom asked the shortstop.

“How to grow a beard,” Story cracked back.

“He told me I gotta turn 30 to grow a beard and get the bicep veins,” the 23-year-old said with a smile.

Despite arriving at spring training having already met several of his new teammates, being a new guy is still an enormous adjustment.

“It’s kind of weird,” Grissom admitted. “But everything you do is brand-new to everyone, so you can choose who you want to be and ride with it.”

Who does he want to be? “I want to be him,” he said with a chuckle, referring to Triston Casas, with whom he formed an immediate bond at Story’s camp.

“I just met him last week, but I feel like I’ve known him for years,” Casas told the Herald during Rookie Development Program. “We got along really well… My first impression of him is that I find a lot of my qualities or my personality in him.I think we’re pretty similar personality-wise. I think we have a similar sense of humor. I think he has a lot of characteristics similar to mine in terms of work ethic, thought process, how to go about at-bats and in-game stuff, on the field as well as off the field.”

“Me and Casas really hit it off out there,” Grissom agreed. Then, he explained that without evening knowing it, they’d had a “deeper” connection long ago.

“My family knew his family before I did,” he said. “His grandma is like, one of my grandma’s sister’s godmother. Our family really knows each other. My cousin is like, his lawyer. It goes pretty deep.”

What’s more, Grissom’s grandmother actually met his new manager before he did.

“My grandma’s sister got inducted into the Hall of Fame in Puerto Rico for basketball, and Cora was there, in the ceremony as well,” he said. (Cora was also inducted last year.) “My grandma, I don’t even know, she just grew a pair and went over like, I’m gonna go talk to this guy. So they talked like a month before, and then I get traded to him and she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I already know him!”

“She’s basically the coolest, she can do it all,” he added. “She would make the atmosphere a little bit better here. She’s the best, everyone can rally around her.”

That Grissom went from a Braves team built to be a perennial contender to a Red Sox team projected to finish in last place again isn’t really on his radar. He’d like fans to give them a chance, perhaps let them play at least one spring training game – at least the exhibition game against Northeastern next Friday – before writing them off.

“Just trust the process,” he said. “We’ll be there.”

Calling Fenway Park home will be a new experience, but playing there won’t be. Grissom feels like it was almost predetermined, destiny that the player who made his Major League debut at Fenway Park two summers ago – and did so with aplomb, hitting a towering home run over the Green Monster – is now on the home team.

“100-percent, it’s definitely a full-circle moment, that’s something you dream of,” he said with a smile. “To be able to come back to the same spot where it all started, seems like I’m not in charge.”

He’s itching to hit another one.

“Hopefully, it goes the same way.”