FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There have been plenty of lessons to draw from.

Jason Bay after the 2009 season. Adrian Beltre and Victor Martinez the following year. Cody Ross heading into last offseason. Heck, even Wes Welker leading up to standing at a podium in Denver on Thursday.

A player (or team) can think they’re ready for free agency, but that’s often easier said than done.

It seems simple -- just ask David Ortiz, who has vast experience living on the edge of entering free agency.

“If you put up your numbers and you do what you’re supposed to, you’re going to be in the game. It all depends on how approach the game,” the Red Sox designated hitter said. “If you put pressure on yourself from the very beginning, it’s going to be hard. But if you go with the flow and keep doing things the way you normally do, you’ll be fine.”

And certainly the five Red Sox players who have a chance to become free agents following the 2013 season -- Joel Hanrahan, Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mike Napoli -- will try to heed Ortiz’s advice.

But the reality is a free agent year only comes around a few occasions in a lifetime, a notion the players aren’t blind to.

“I really didn’t like the whole process,” said Napoli, who joins Drew as the only two members of the group who have experienced the dynamic. “You’re a free agent, you earned your free agency, but it’s a little stressful. You’re talking to different teams. You’re agent is always calling you, giving you information.

“For me, I really didn’t think about it. You want to do good before you go to free agency. But I just felt if I took care of that day I could block that stuff out.”

Talking to the potential free agents, the consensus is that the chance to enter into the free agent market isn’t going to change their mindset.

As Bay emphasized before heading into his free agency experience, players have earned the right to dip their toes into these waters, so why should the fun stop and added pressure start?

“I don’t think it’s weird for anybody,” Hanrahan said. “That’s what we work for, to get enough time to be a free agent and see how things play out. I’m going to go out there and try not to worry about that, try and do whatever I need to worry about here, and maybe stick around here for a couple of years.

“Everybody gets excited about it, but they’re not going out there every game saying, ‘If I give up a run today it’s going to effect my free agency.’ We’re all competitors. We’re all trying to do our job. We know if we do our job we’re going to be rewarded for it. That’s all you can really worry about.”

Saltalamacchia concurs with his teammate.

“Obviously, never being there before, my mindset is going to be the same if I was here for 10 years,” the catcher said. “We’re all here to do a job, we’re here to win. I’m a true believer everything takes care of itself. If you play selfish you’re going to get burned in the end. I’m going to be a good teammate and help out and try and win. Whatever happens, it will take care of itself.”

The same goes for Ellsbury.

“Every year I’ve played for something. I’ve never had a guarantee. For me, it’s the same as it has been the last three years, going through arbitration,” the outfielder said. “For me, it doesn’t change my approach. It doesn’t change how I go about the game. It doesn’t change my work ethic. From that standpoint, nothing changes.

“I can only speak on how I feel and how I’ve prepared, and I’m just viewing it from that standpoint. It’s the same for me.”

But there are different dynamics to deal with.

As the players suggested, openly altering your game to claim preferred free agent status is rare. But there also is a reason why teams aren’t shy about signing a player coming off a down year to a one-year deal, playing on a new level of motivation.

“Some guys do handle it different,” Saltalamacchia said. “But for the most part everybody is trying to go out there and play the best they can. Yeah, some guys are a little more selfish when they get the opportunity -- instead of getting the guy over, they’re driving them in. But I’ve never seen a guy who is a bad teammate because of it, he’s trying to be all for himself. I’ve got a good group of guys around me. I feel comfortable and confident around those guys and we know we all have a job to do.”

Then there is the in-season negotiating conundrum.

There are some players who are adamant that once the season begins, they don’t want to be burdened with thinking about contract talks. Sometimes those potential free agents stand by their philosophy, while others still keep the door open as the year unfolds.

This is where the players who haven’t experienced the process before admit there is definitive right or wrong.

“It’s tough because I’ve never been put in that situation,” Saltalamacchia said. “It wouldn’t affect me any way. I wouldn’t try and do anything different. Ideally, I would love to get it done before spring training or just wait. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I want to be here.”

Said Hanrahan: “Shoot, I’ve never been in that position before, so if they approach me in July I’m not going to say no. I’ve always said the team I’m with is going to get the first chance. If they approach me, my people will listen to it and we’ll go from there. People from Boston might hate me from the get-go, so who knows.”

Added Napoli: “We had little talks with Texas, but we said once All-Star break comes we’re going to worry about the year and go from there. I told my agent if he wanted to talk to them, that’s fine, and if there is something really important you want to tell me, tell me. But if it’s little stuff, keep to yourself and let me play my season.”

It’s impossible to identify exactly which players are going to thrive in the forthcoming circumstances. But, if history is our guide, for some of them, living the life of a potential free agent might not be as simple as they’re advertising.

The final conclusion, of course, won’t be uncovered for another six months.

“I play baseball to have fun,” Ellsbury said. “It’s always been a game to me. I’ve always had fun doing it. I just stay focused on what I do and let whomever needs to control everything else do that.”