FORT MYERS, Fla. — As spring training ramps up players will spend the next five weeks gearing up for the new season, but important as it is to prepare for the long grind, it’s even more important that nobody breaks down out of the gate.

Keeping that in mind, Red Sox manager Alex Cora plans to take it slow with several key players who aren’t at 100%.

Cora said Friday that outfielder Jarren Duran, second baseman Vaughn Grissom and catcher Connor Wong won’t play in the first week of Grapefruit League games for precautionary reasons. Duran is completing his recovery from last fall’s toe surgery, while Grissom is battling a tweaked hamstring and Wong elbow soreness that cropped up more recently.

“Nothing too serious, so we’ll push him back,” Cora said of Wong. “His throwing program is a little behind in that aspect but hopefully at the end of the week he’ll start playing.”

Cora said he’s not concerned about any of the three missing time in the regular season. Duran is expected to make his spring debut next Friday against Minnesota, and while Grissom and Wong don’t have a set timetable Cora hopes they’ll be ready for games around that time as well.

Grissom’s injury occurred while the 23-year-old infielder was taking part in Trevor Story’s infield camp last month, and for the first couple weeks of camp the club has focused on building up his base fitness and on improving his footwork at second base.

“We’ve just got to be careful, we don’t want him to try to play here at 80-90% and then something really happens,” Cora said. “We’re going to be cautious in that aspect but little by little he’s building up, he’s doing all his footwork inside and taking his ground balls inside so we feel good with where he’s at and whenever he’s ready.”

On the pitching side Cora gave a positive update on Kenley Jansen, whose progression has been slowed by general lat soreness. Jansen threw long toss up to 120 feet on Thursday, and Cora indicated both he and fellow veteran Chris Martin will likely only pitch five innings of game action during the spring.

“That’s all he needs, same with Chris, they know what they need to do to get ready for the season and we’ll take it slow with both of them,” Cora said.

Who’s up next?

After loading up the lineup with prospects and minor leaguers against Northeastern, Cora expects the Red Sox big leaguers to start seeing more action this weekend and that some of the projected starters will play back to back games on Sunday and Monday at JetBlue Park.

“They’re going to play a lot, but today didn’t feel like we wanted them to play,” Cora said.

Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Bobby Dalbec and Pablo Reyes will be among the big leaguers making the trip to Sarasota for Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener against the Baltimore Orioles. Garrett Whitlock will get the start and Cooper Criswell, Isaiah Campbell, Justin Slaten, Jorge Benitez and Justin Hagenman are all expected to take the mound as well.

Looking ahead, Cora indicated that Reyes will also see time at first base in addition to the middle infield, making him a potential alternative to Dalbec as the backup corner infielder. Cora said Reyes will play shortstop Saturday against Baltimore and first base on Sunday, and that Dalbec will play first base Saturday and third base afterwards.