FORT MYERS, Fla. – “I think we have to be uncomfortable to take the next step,” Rob Refsnyder told the Herald on Sunday, his first morning back at JetBlue Park for spring training.

Throughout the offseason, Red Sox players spoke about how they wanted to come into a new season after back-to-back last-place finishes.

“(Alex) Cora does a really good job keeping us all pretty in-contact,” said Refsnyder. “We were all in agreement that spring training’s gotta be a little bit different. It’s a lot more competition-based.”

“If you don’t work hard in the offseason, you’re just blown away in the season, I think,” he added.

Despite the club’s lackluster results over most of the last half-decade, Refsnyder thinks Bostonians will understand and appreciate the mindset and approach players have this year.

“Just looking at Boston as a city, it’s just such a super-hungry city,” he assessed. “I think it reflects well, you know, we’re the same way: just super-hungry, don’t take anything for granted, hard-working people.”

“These people are putting in so much time and effort into the offseason,” he said of his teammates. “There’s a lot of people that worked extremely hard… whether it was on their bodies, their minds, specific skills, pitch design, swing thoughts.

“I think there’s a lot of guys with the chips on their shoulders, they didn’t think they had a good season last year, we’re coming off back-to-back last-place finishes, we talk about it, that we were pretty close at the deadline. We know we have the talent, and we just gotta put it together for the whole season and stay healthy. It’s a close clubhouse.”

The downside of closeness is that it can be hard to watch teammates leave.

“It is different, seeing or not seeing some people here,” Refsnyder admitted. “(John Schreiber) was one of my closest friends on the team, if not the closest on the pitching side. We had a lot in common. He’s just such a good guy. Good, good guy. I don’t think anyone here didn’t love him.”

“We’re happy for him though,” he added of the right-hander, who was traded to Kansas City on Saturday. “It’ll be good. Getting traded is cool, it means somebody wants you. I think the Royals are trying to take that next step.”

As to who’ll lead the Red Sox this year, there’s no doubt in Refsnyder’s mind that their shortstop is the man for the job.

“I think Trevor’s going to take that next step as our leader,” he said of Trevor Story. “And he’s a super-competitive guy. Just bringing that perspective, I think that there’s going to be a lot more competition this spring training, and just trying to push the envelope and make people uncomfortable.”

Refsnyder doesn’t want to dwell too much on the past, but he does think that this year’s team should draw some inspiration from previous Red Sox squads.

“I feel like the best Boston teams when I was growing up, they were just grimy and dirty, played hard,” he said. “They’ve never been the pretty, ‘everyone expects them to win’ kind of thing, they just get after it. You look at guys like (Dustin) Pedroia, (Jonny) Gomes, (Mike) Napoli, guys like that, Daniel Nava, Brock (Holt), guys that just get after it. For us to be successful, we’re going to have to really be a team like that.”

“We got good guys to do it, though,” he added.

“Jarren’s going to take that next step,” Refsnyder predicted of his fellow outfielder, Jarren Duran. “Guy’s a freak, super-hungry, he cares so much. I feel like, as a fanbase, you want players like that.”

Refsnyder is entering his third season with the Red Sox after playing a career-high 89 games last year. That makes the 32-year-old utility player the second-most veteran member of the outfield, after Duran, who debuted in 2021.

“I think Jarren’s done a great job. He was unbelievable, you saw, last year,” Refsnyder lauded.

Informed of Alex Cora’s announcement that if Duran’s healthy, he’ll be their leadoff hitter, Refsnyder was all for it. “He should be,” he said. “You saw with Jarren last year, when Jarren’s healthy and leading off, we’re just so dangerous.

“He does stuff on a field that doesn’t make sense. He hits routine ground balls that are doubles. He’s just so exciting.”