ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It might not be a priority right now, but it is something to start thinking about.

Cody Ross is.

The outfielder came to Boston admittedly with at least one eye on what the environment could potentially do for him. The hitter-friendly park. The potential of winning. The chance to play. It all added up to a great springboard for another round of free agency for the outfielder. But then something changed.

Cody Ross wants to stay.

"Definitely. Absolutely. I'm happy here," said Ross when asked if his mindset has changed since arriving with the Red Sox. "I like it. I like what it's all about. It's been better than I thought."

Ross' agent hasn't negotiated a deal with the Red Sox that would extend the outfielder beyond his current one-year, $3 million deal, but the 31-year-old hopes that time isn't too far away.

He's hitting .259 with an .869 OPS to go along with 13 home runs. The right-handed hitter has tortured lefty pitching, totaling a .311 batting average and 1.157 OPS against southpaws. Also, in a clubhouse searching for foundations, he represents a pretty decent pillar.

For Boston, Ross has exceeded expectations. And the same can be said when asking Ross for his thoughts about Boston.

"Absolutely. Definitely," said the outfielder when asked if life as a Red Sox is better than he expected.

"That being said, every place I've been I've felt like I was a good fit. But when you sit down and really map it out and everything just seems like it lines up for me. Great organization, check. Great teammates, check. Want to win, check. Great hitters' park, check. A lineup that can do some damage, check. Other places I've obviously had great times with and had great experiences there, but there was always something that didn't add up. Would I have wanted to stay in Miami? Sure. Would I want to have stayed in San Francisco? Sure. But if you sit down and think about it neither one of those places would have been good for me career-wise."

For Ross, the pairing of team and player has just fit. That's why the idea of another offseason of free agency is becoming less and less appetizing.

"I think so, and I'm not just saying that because I'm here. I felt like that before I signed here," Ross said. "I obviously didn't know a whole lot about the organization, and I didn't know a lot about the management. I knew a lot of the players, not all of them, but I knew it was going to be a good group. A bunch of guys who were going to care about winning. I want to be in a spot like this. I don't want to go backwards. 

"I'm a free agent at the end of the year and the free agent process can become a grind. I went through it. I feel like as a player going through the free agent process, you don't really prepare to get ready for the season like you would if you were a signed player going into the season because the last thing you want to do is an offseason workout program and blow out. You're constantly thinking about what's going on instead of focusing on going to spring training and getting after it. You're thinking, 'Where am I going to be?' instead of 'I can't wait to get there.'"

Ross could have been locked up for next season if he took the Braves' offer, which was for two years. But because of all the aforementioned attractions presented by the Red Sox -- many of which didn't come clearly into focus until late in the offseason -- the outfielder took the chance.

In his mind, it has paid off … and then some.

"Would I have been able to go there and play? Yeah, probably. I'm pretty sure I could have gone over and played every day," Ross said of the Braves. "But that wasn't the case in spring training. They called it a hybrid player, which I never heard of. It's not an everyday player, but it's not a strict platoon player. It's a guy who can play all three positions and fill in. They weren't going to say, you're going to be our right fielder, or you're going to be our left fielder, because they had [Martin] Prado, [Michael] Bourne and Jason Heyward. So there was no spot for me. Boston was in the picture the whole time, but once Carl [Crawford] had surgery that's when it really got serious and I knew I was going to get a significant amount of at-bats and be able to play. Then, obviously with Jacoby [Ellsbury] going down it was a perfect storm."

So, what would be the Red Sox' motivation in locking up Ross? A hard look at the situation reveals that as good a fit as the team is for the player, the player might be just as snug a fit for the team.

He figures to be relatively affordable, an important quality for a team attempting to manage an increasingly uncomfortable budget in the next few years. His talents fit what this lineup needs, as was the case with the likes of since-departed right-handed pull-hitters Kevin Millar, Mike Lowell, Jason Bay and Adrian Beltre.

And then there is how Ross' presence can protect the Red Sox' future.

He can serve as a bridge for the next group of outfielders scheduled to eventually make Fenway Park their home, such as Ryan Kalish, Jackie Bradley, Bryce Brentz and/or Brandon Jacobs. He could also allow the organization to use players like Brentz, Jacobs or Kalish as trade chips for various needs, allowing it to keep the likes of next-level prospects such as Bradley, Matt Barnes, Xanders Bogaerts, and Will Middlebrooks.

There is also the insurance Ross would supply in the Red Sox' outfield if Jacoby Ellsbury leaves, whether via a trade or, eventually, as a free agent. Ross won't offer the Red Sox what Ellsbury did in 2011, but he could be a much-needed veteran piece of the puzzle.

A Ross extension isn't going to dominate the air waves, like Bay's status did in '09, or even Beltre in '10. But it could be a potentially important element that shouldn't be ignored.

"I thought I was going to have a really tough time," he said. "It has been a pretty adjustment getting familiar with the American League. I've gone up there on many at-bats … You do your studying, you have film and you listen to your hitting coaches, but until you get up there and face these guys you don't know how they're going to attack you. It's been a learning process in that particular part of it. It was something I was pretty worried about, but at the end of the day it's still baseball and they still have to throw it over the plate and you still have to make contact. But other than that it's been a pretty perfect spot.

"My kids are starting kindergarten now, and we live on the West Coast, it would be easy for me to try and get back over there. It would be more convenient to play for a West Coast team. But if I'm going to be on the East Coast, I want to be here. If not, chances are I'm going to try and find myself back on the West Coast somewhere."