FORT MYERS, Fla. — One year ago, nobody was sure what Season 1 of J.D. Martinez in a Red Sox uniform would look like.

Now we know.

The only mystery left is wondering if Martinez can get better?

He led the major leagues in RBI (130) and total bases (358) in 2018, was second in home runs (43), batting average (.330) and slugging percentage (.629), and third in OPS (1.031) and hits (188).

It was the best season of his eight-year career.

The clue he offered Saturday about the intrigue that surrounds his production should reassure his fans and teammates.

“For me, I feel like there is always room to grow,” Martinez said after making his spring training debut (foul pop-up, groundout as DH) in a 9-1 loss to the Orioles. “I learned so many things last year, and I learned the years before. The mind is always growing. As long as you keep absorbing information, it’s hard to say no, because then I feel like I’m giving up on myself.”

Giving up on himself would counter every narrative Martinez has written since the Astros gave up on him five spring trainings ago. Their loss was the Tigers’ gain, followed by the Diamondbacks briefly before the Red Sox took their shot.

They found the right guy, he found the right team, and now everything’s peaches and cream again.

As a concept, Martinez endorses personal growth. But when it comes to topping last year’s numbers, he backs off the far horizon in favor of what’s right in front of him – this pitch, not the next one.

“Nothing – for me, I really don’t set goals like that, all I try to do is set my goal for each day and try to control what I can do today,” Martinez said. “If I try to sit there and I say, ‘Hey, I have to hit 130 RBI,’ you look at it right now, that’s a lot of RBI. But if I make it a smaller goal and I make it, ‘Hey, today, there’s a guy on second base, I just try to hit a ball up the middle,’ you know, and I minimize it, at the end of the year, you’re where you want to be. I try not to get caught up in what I’m trying to do this year and what goals I have set out for me.”

David Ortiz and Martinez held a pow-wow outside the Red Sox clubhouse before the game. Martinez spent most of his time listening.

Afterward, Ortiz did his level best to apply the most colorful descriptors his fertile mind could come up with.

“J.D., man, J.D. is like the center, the mother hen, he’s the one who everybody is like getting feed from, you know what I’m saying, because he’s a psychopath,” Ortiz said. “This dude is on another level of being good and wanting to be better. That’s one thing I enjoy the most when I’m around here is just watching the way he handles himself and the way he helps the rest of the squad, you know what I’m saying? And like I say, that’s what makes a difference year after year after year. We missed a J.D. Martinez in 2017. Then you have him in 2018 and you see what happened.”

Which makes it so difficult to imagine 2019 turning into anything better than what happened in 2018.

Manager Alex Cora was at a loss to think of any specific ways in which the most dedicated, driven, analytical and co-productive hitter (with Mookie Betts) in the lineup could improve.

“From my end, no, not really,” Cora said about Martinez getting better. But then he thought of how Martinez began to get caught up in the Triple Crown chase after the Red Sox clinched, particularly trying to catch Oakland’s Khris Davis, who finished five homers ahead of him for the major-league lead.

“I think toward the end, yeah, he got caught up a little on the home runs, he got away from who he was obviously after we clinched, he saw what was going on on the West Coast and maybe he was trying and he got out of his swing path and probably the strike zone he was expanding a little bit,” Cora said. “But then obviously when it really counted, he got back to who he was, so nothing changes with him as far as his approach.”

Why would anything change for Martinez?

Cora said last spring that Martinez reminded him of Manny Ramirez. One year later, he’s even more sure of the comparison.

“He’s actually the closest thing to Manny,” the manager said. “I saw it. He’ll hit for average, he’s a good base runner, actually. He’s really good.

“What this guy does is eye-opening. Nonstop. That’s why I said last year he was the perfect fit for this organization, because for him, it’s baseball 24 hours, seven days a week.”

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