I like ’em. It’s just that simple. I like ’em.

Some fans love unconditionally. Not me. Sometimes a team warms your heart and sometimes you want to write it out of the will. It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about giving me a reason to care. And I really like what I’ve seen of the 2016 Boston Red Sox.

I guess you have to start with Big Papi. David Ortiz has often been a slow starter. But this year he has not waited till June before he began bustin’ out all over. He’s already put a serious hurt on a lot of baseballs. The only thing I worry about is the day he pulls up lame running down to first or comes up with an oblique injury after one of those swings geared to hit a baseball over the Citgo sign. He is 40, and it would be foolish to think he’s going to get through an entire season without an owie or two.

(Sing that “He must be juiced’’ song to someone else. I ain’t listening.)

Hanley! Who knew? Not for the first time, someone has moved over to first base and begun playing it as if he had been born there. We saw it a while back with Carlos Quintana. We sure saw it with Mike Napoli. Now it’s Hanley Ramirez flashing the fancy leather. This, after I spent all winter saying that if the Red Sox persisted in this ridiculous notion of making him a first baseman there would be a general strike of the other infielders. This reminds us that, as Yogi famously said, “Ninety percent of this game is half-mental.’’ Hanley hated The Wall and the real estate in front of it more than we knew. And we really thought we knew.

Moving right along, isn’t it nice to welcome back our little second baseman to the ranks of the healthy? Dustin Pedroia just hasn’t been himself at the plate these past couple of years. Now he’s once again twirling that bat, saying, “Go ahead. Try to throw one by me.’’ The defense, as always, has been impeccable.

The shortstop is a keeper. Count me among those waiting for Xander Bogaerts to become a 15-20-homer guy, but until he does I’m very happy with the Xander we’ve got. As big as he is, we can’t help fantasizing about him becoming the total package, and that would include being a bigger home run threat. Don’t take that as a complaint, just a comment.

As far as the guy next to him is concerned, how could anyone possibly complain? I find it very interesting that a year ago at this time the name of Travis Shaw was not exactly on any of our lips. I must confess to not being aware of his existence on the earth. Suddenly, he came into our life and he got our attention by hitting 13 homers in 248 at-bats. Now he has shown that he can play two positions quite nicely, and that he is a solid, intelligent hitter, a very productive No. 6 man.

OK, the outfield. Yes, I wish there was more general power. Many of us were spoiled by a Rice-Lynn-Evans outfield in which everyone would hit 20 or more bombs a year. We never thought much about it. That’s just the way it was. We may never see that again.

What we have is an outfield in which everyone can go get ’em, which I’m sure makes the pitchers happy. Would-be doubles are held to singles. Balls are run down in the gaps. Hey, these guys can actually throw some people out!

Aside from pitch and catch, is there anything Brock Holt can’t do in the field? He doesn’t fit the profile of the corner outfielder at the plate. We all know that. He tends to wear down over the course of the long season. We know that. He is probably best suited to be that classic jack-of-all-trades utilityman. We know that, too. But darn it, isn’t he fun to watch? Until something better comes along — and I’m not holding my breath waiting for Rusney Castillo to blossom — I’m happy to have Brock Holt in the lineup.

We’re all on the same page with Jackie Bradley Jr., aren’t we? Even if you don’t believe, as I do, that he is the best defensive center fielder the Red Sox have had in the post-Piersall era, you have to admit that he’s awfully good. What a dream it would be if these occasional offensive outbursts of his could occur with a bit more frequency, say, to the point where he could hit an annual .275-.280 with a little thump. On top of all this, he is so downright likable we all ache for him to succeed.

Mookie Betts. What’s not to like? It’s hard to believe that not too long ago he was a second baseman. The baby Andrew McCutchen thing may be a reach, but maybe not.

Then there’s the bonus behind the plate. It’s not too often that a catcher is truly fun to watch. They do what they do, and life goes on. But when Christian Vazquez is behind the plate you absolutely, positively cannot take your eyes off him. He attacks the position. Perhaps he really is the fourth Molina brother.

Of course, we all know that the team will only go as far as the pitching will take it. That’s Baseball 101. And with this staff we’re talking about hope far more than expectation. We hope David Price will start pitching like the David Price of 2015 much more often. We hope Rick Porcello really is as good as he’s looked so far. We hope Steven Wright is, well, for real. We hope Joe Kelly has learned that he can’t depend solely on his fastball. We hope Eduardo Rodriguez will come back soon. We hope Henry Owens can justify his presence as a back-of-the-rotation starter. Oh, and we hope Clay Buchholz can stop teasing us and, at long last, be the top-flight pitcher his great repertoire says he should be.

You can’t complain about the bullpen too much, can you? Now that Carson Smith has arrived, John Farrell has expanded options. Matt Barnes has been promising. He throws harder than I realized. I’m OK with our Japanese contingent. I think we all need to see a little more of Robbie Ross Jr. before we sign off on our lefty pen situation. And Craig Kimbrel appears to have settled in.

Unlike the National League, where the Cubs might win 110 games and the Nationals, Mets, and Pirates are all going to threaten 100, there is no truly superior team in the American League. The Royals are the two-time defending AL champs, but do they scare you? The division rivals, like the Red Sox, are far from perfect. There is no reason to think the Sox can’t compete with anyone in the league.

I’m not being a Pollyanna here. I’m not saying the Red Sox are great. I’m not predicting anything. Check that. Yes, I am. I’m predicting an entertaining summer.

I like ’em, and that’s that.

Bob Ryan’s column appears regularly in the Globe. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.