FORT MYERS, Fla. — Picked-up pieces from 11 days tracking the Red Sox in sunny Southwest Florida . . .

¦  The first spring training game has not yet been played and already the pressure is building on the 2016 Red Sox. USA Today says the Red Sox are going to win the American League East with a record of 88-74. FanGraphs has the Red Sox winning an AL-best 92 games. There’s no getting around the fact that there will be inordinate pressure on manager John Farrell at the start of the season. This is what happens when you finish last two years in a row with a top-three payroll. This is what happens when the interim manager fares better than the manager-in-place at the end of a losing season. If Farrell is going to keep his job, the Red Sox simply have to get out of the gate quickly. Everybody knows it. John Henry and Dave Dombrowski both talked about the need for a good start, and Farrell acknowledged, “Collectively, we all know that getting off to a good start would go a long way. If that’s a suggestion there’s a tentative nature to my position or my status, I don’t look at it that way. No one wants to win more than I do. Yet we all realize that the last two years have not met our own internal expectations.’’

¦  Here are a couple of red flags: 1. The Sox will downplay Eduardo Rodriguez’s patellar tendon subluxation in his right knee, but these little things have a way of becoming big things. The Sox’ rotation is suspect after David Price. Losing Rodriguez early would really hurt. 2. While everyone rips the Sox’ bloated, underachieving corner infielders, why is there no concern about the starting outfield? Mookie Betts looks like the real thing, but we still don’t know if Jackie Bradley Jr. can hit, and we don’t know much of anything about Rusney Castillo, who turns 29 in July. This is not Lynn, Rice, and Evans.

¦  I thought there was going to be a competition for the Sox’ starting catcher job and came to Fort Myers ready to write about the two kid catchers, dressing side by side, silently grumbling about the other guy trying to take his job. No. Blake Swihart and Christian Vazquez seem to get along great and it’s obvious that the Sox are not going to let Vazquez start the season in the majors.

¦  The cover of the 2015 Red Sox media guide featured David Ortiz flanked by Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. This year, the cover features Ortiz along with Dustin Pedroia, Craig Kimbrel, and David Price. The Sox have erased “A New Day’’ from atop their introductory statement and replaced it with, “You Can Never Rest.’’ Last year, under “A New Day,’’ it read, “In the 13 seasons since Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino and their partners purchased the Red Sox . . .’’ That section of the guide now begins with, “As Principal Owner John W. Henry and Chairman Tom Werner begin their 15th season as stewards of the Red Sox franchise . . .’’ No more John, Tom, and Larry. Now it’s just John and Tom (president/CEO emeritus Lucchino still earns a one-page bio after the bios of David Ginsberg and Phillip H. Morse). Last year, the club stated, “Commitment #1: To Field A Team Worthy of the Fans’ Support.’’ This year, it’s “Commitment No. 1: Playing October Baseball Each Season, With the Ultimate Goal of Winning World Series Championships.’’

¦  Pedroia was mildly miffed when a few of us posted a photo of his “Bandit’’ Jeep on Twitter. “Why not just put a picture of my house on there?’’ said the feisty infielder. “Can I loan you my wallet so you can take pictures of my credit cards and put them online?’’

¦  Yes, that is “The Curse of the Bambino’’ that Marty Baron (played by Liev Schreiber) is reading when the new Globe editor first meets Walter Robinson (played by Michael Keaton) in an early scene in “Spotlight.’’ I supplied the film’s producers with a 2001 edition of the book. Baron, not a baseball fan, read “Curse’’ to learn about Boston when he got the Globe job in 2001.

¦  Fans and media are going to love Price. He makes more money than anybody on the team, he’s in huge demand, and yet it seems he cannot say no. You will be seeing a lot of Price sound bites on local television this spring.

¦  Security Command Department: I love how the Red Sox team meeting before the first full squad workout — the one where the owners address the team, and everyone from the medical staff to the equipment guys makes a short statement — is now officially referenced as the “Company Meeting.’’ Reminds me of Jim Rice’s famous remark when asked about having friends on the team during his playing days: “They’re not friends, they’re associates,’’ said Jim Ed. Rice, by the way, looks snappy in the retro 1975 red-and-blue Sox cap. “I liked it better in ’75 when I was getting paid to wear it,’’ said the Hall-of-Famer.

¦  Pedroia’s nickname for Brock Holt: “Norman Brockwell.’’

¦  Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to make his first 2016 appearance at Fenway on April 29 (30th anniversary of Roger Clemens’s 20-strikeout game against Seattle). A-Rod needs only 27 home runs to tie Babe Ruth (714) on the all-time list. Remember how Rodriguez was dissed by his own team in 2015? The Yankees are having A-Rod “Replica Bat Day’’ at Yankee Stadium May 14.

¦  Florida Gulf Coast University has a senior righthanded pitcher named Brady Anderson. Far as we can tell, the kid is not related to the former Sox boy wonder who now works in the Orioles front office with Dan Duquette.

¦  This is the 47th spring training for the great Peter Gammons and No. 44 for WBZ radio’s intrepid Jonny Miller. “That’s 17 Red Sox managers,’’ Miller notes.

¦  Good to see Jerry Remy back in camp. The RemDawg never fails to remind me of the day he picked me up hitchhiking in the 1970s when he was a big league second baseman and I was a young scribe without enough money for a car.

Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.