Red Sox spring training always feels a bit like summer camp. You’re away from home. You reconnect with people you haven’t seen in months. The surroundings are just as you remember them. The days follow a familiar, comforting rhythm. Everyone pretends it’s the best camp ever, every year. The moment you leave you realize that you’ve been living in a bubble.

After being embedded in Camp Feel Good in Fort Myers, Fla., for a week, here are five thoughts on the 2016 baseball season.

1. With a fan base as passionate and demanding as Red Sox Nation, it’s easy to confuse players not giving effort or not caring with underperforming. In the case of Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval thus far, they’re putting in the work. Whether that equates to the required performance standards remains to be seen.

Let’s be honest, if the Sox could have jettisoned both players they would have. But they couldn’t, so Ramirez is transitioning to first base and Sandoval is trying to rediscover his range at third base. Will it work? Who knows. Ramirez could grow disinterested, like he did last year with putting in extra work to adjust to left field. But Ramirez uttered the words “passion’’ and “dedication’’ — two words that wouldn’t come up in a game of Hanley career word association — on Sunday, when asked about learning to play first base.

For now, both players are serious about atoning for their 2015 seasons.

“Yeah, I’ve been working in spring training, 8:30 in the morning every single day to get the range, get the motion back, get situations like fungoes to work on my first step,’’ said Sandoval. “That’s what I want to concentrate on this year, playing better defense to demonstrate to my teammates that I’ll shore up things in the field.’’

2. For all the talk about the Red Sox adding an ace in David Price, the rotation still looks shaky behind him. The right kneecap subluxation that Eduardo Rodriguez suffered is unsettling, as it could stunt his development into a top-of-the-rotation starter. The Sox are relying on both Clay Buchholz and Rick Porcello to have successful campaigns in the same season. This seems dubious.

Buchholz possesses the stuff, but lacks the durability. Porcello has the durability, but how well his stuff plays in the American League East is still a question mark. The Sox will have to acquire another proven starter during the season.

3. Remember the old Dominican Mystery Man, Red Sox pitcher Robinson Checo? The ballyhooed pitcher signed as an international free agent, by way of Japan, with the Red Sox in 1996. He made his debut in 1997. You can call outfielder Rusney Castillo the Cuban Mystery Man because no one around the Sox knows what they have with him.

This is a big season for the outfielder, who received a seven-year, $72 million deal from the Sox in 2014. He has been handed the left field job.

Castillo looks like Rickey Henderson, but he has played closer to Ricky Ledee in 90 big league games. He has failed to make the impact of countrymen Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, and Jose Abreu. One way or another this season the Sox have to determine what they have, if anything, in Castillo.

4. Red Sox uber-prospect Yoan Moncada already has a big league build. He stands out from his minor league peers like the Little Leaguer who has peach fuzz. There is no way he will stick at second base. The legacy of former Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington is the stocked farm system he left behind. The Sox have five prospects in Baseball America’s annual top 100 prospect rankings and four in the top 20, led by Moncada (No. 3).

Prospect-profiling and projecting has become a cottage industry. We know more about prospects sooner than ever before, and we expect them to live up to our expectations faster than ever. Red Sox general manager Mike Hazen, who served as the team’s director of player development and then vice president of player development, has noticed the trend.

“I think players deal with that more and more as their names become more prominent earlier and earlier and earlier,’’ said Hazen. “I mean there is so much dedicated in the media space in terms of all the publications that talk about these guys. We get to know them faster. It’s thrust on them a little big sooner.

“I think Boston presents some unique situations and challenges for some of these guys, but they still got to be able to play big league baseball. That’s the same whether it’s in Boston or Kansas City or LA. You still have to be able to go out there, and you’re still facing the same caliber of competition. In the end from 7 to 10 p.m., you just have to be able to lock in and do that.

“I also think it works to our benefit in a lot of cases. Our guys, because they get a little bit more attention, they’re used to it a little bit more.’’

5. There are varying opinions on the new sliding rules that Major League Baseball instituted this year to protect players turning double plays and prevent injuries, like the broken leg Mets infielder Ruben Tejada suffered in the National League Division Series when he was wiped out by Chase Utley.

But one interesting note from Chris Marinak, senior vice president of league economics and strategy for MLB, was that baseball found that 86 percent of the injuries to infielders at second base occurred when base runners failed to begin their slide before reaching the base area — guys going in late to break up the double play.

“I think the players will pick up on it quickly,’’ said Marinak. “I don’t think there will be a lot of issues with slides that are egregious and clear violations or players that don’t know what to do. Maybe, just a learning curve where they feel comfortable with the new rule.’’

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.