FORT MYERS, Fla. — Dwight Evans, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Luis Tiant. The former Red Sox legends have been fixtures at spring training for years, offering their insight and experience to the club’s current players.

That perspective is invaluable, and this spring the Red Sox have made a point to bring in even more voices who can help ready the club for the new season.

Thursday two new dignitaries made an appearance at JetBlue Park, former Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester and longtime Boston Pops Orchestra conductor Keith Lockhart. Lester will spend two days in Fort Myers helping out the pitchers, while Lockhart spoke to the players Thursday morning.

“I invited him to come over and talk about leadership, how we can get a group together of different talents, different levels, and make it work,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who admitted he played the flute in 10th grade but gave it up after one year. “What they do in his job, in his domain, it’s amazing. You have to be on-point on everything and he just had a great talk with the players.”

Speaking to the Herald, Lockhart said he and Cora did a seminar in the fall together about leadership among elite performers, and following the event Cora asked if he’d be willing to speak at spring training. Things came together within the last two weeks and he appreciated the opportunity to draw a connection between his musical world and the world of competitive baseball.

“When you deal with the Boston Symphony or the Boston Pops you’re dealing with a group of, within their field, elite athletes,” Lockhart said. “The same kind of people who have spent five to six hours a day since they were five or six years old perfecting a craft, that brings with it the challenges of building a team out of people who, up until this level, the team was built around them. Because everybody here was the star in high school or college and in Triple-A, and all of a sudden there are a bunch of stars, so how do you get people focused on a common goal and mutually supportive?”

Lockhart’s message was well received within the Red Sox clubhouse.

“His message to us was about leadership and how it’s integrated by holding one another accountable instead of from the top down,” said first baseman Triston Casas. “Whenever he has an incident in terms of when someone is off-key or playing out of note, it’s the other members who are holding that person accountable so he doesn’t have to. That was the message I gained out of it and hopefully we can apply it here.”

“As my dad always would say I can barely even play the radio, so obviously I can’t even begin to understand what he can do, but it was phenomenal to be able to relate and understand what he goes through and the leadership and experience that he brings,” said pitcher Garrett Whitlock, who struck out six over three innings Thursday. “Whenever we can have other people at the very peak of what they do to come in and talk, we always love that and cherish it for sure.”

Though he isn’t giving any team-wide presentations like Lockhart’s, Lester’s presence is no less impactful. Nearly a decade after failed contract talks led to his being traded in 2014, Lester has been back at Fenway Park a handful of times since his retirement and was invited to camp this spring by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, his former Red Sox teammate.

Lester described the experience of being back as “a little weird” but is grateful to be back in the fold.

“I was excited. Ultimately when you’re done playing you still want to be a part of something so it was nice to get a phone call and text saying hey we want you to come be a part of this,” Lester said. “It’s a good feeling, I think anybody in life just wants to be wanted, so it’s nice to be wanted and your presence appreciated.”

“You always take wisdom from guys who have been there,” Whitlock said. “It’s awesome getting to see guys like that, especially Lester and Pedro and everybody, we really lean on them and love having them around.”

Though he acknowledged his departure was difficult, Lester said that as time has passed he’s grown to understand the business side of baseball better and harbors no ill will towards the franchise. Now he hopes to help in any way he can, and while the game has already changed a lot even in the last few years, he wants to be a resource for the players, just like Evans, Tiant and Martinez were to him.

“I love talking baseball with guys if they want it,” Lester said. “I’m just here to observe. Watched a couple of bullpens today, which was pretty special to watch, and it’s good to be around the guys.”

As far as Cora is concerned, Lester is welcome any time.

“When you win a World Series here you’re connected to the organization,” Cora said. “That’s the bottom line.”