FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Andrew Benintendi and Brian Johnson went out to lunch together Friday and Benintendi delivered a simple message: I'm going to face you. I'm taking you deep.

"Oh, yeah, he told me he was going to," Johnson told MassLive.com here at the JetBlue Park complex Sunday.

The left-handed hitting Benintendi and the left-handed throwing Johnson already knew they would be facing each other here Sunday in live batting practice when they went to lunch. Johnson had a quick-witted response.

"I was like, 'Well, what if I put it in your back?' joking around with him," Johnson said. "He knows I'm not going to do that."

Benintendi won. He homered to right field on the first swing:

"He did it," Johnson said. "And he top-spun it, too. That's the best part. ... I looked at him. And we both started laughing."

Benintendi later told Johnson he initially wasn't going to swing at the first pitch.

"And then he said, 'You know what? Why not?' I'll swing no matter what here,'" Johnson said.

Benintendi did swing and the rest is history.

The 26-year-old Johnson, a first-round pick in 2012, is excited about this 2017 season after missing a large portion of the 2016 season while being treated for anxiety and depression.

"Last year didn't play out the way I thought it was going to," Johnson said. "I'm better for having gone through that. But I think the biggest thing for me is knowing that I'm ready this year. Last year, really at no point in time until the end of the year did I feel I was ready to be in the big leagues mentally. And now I feel like I'm ready to help in any way possible. I feel great."

Johnson said he had others with depression/anxiety in his family.

"More the depression side of it. And I think it was just me putting so much pressure on myself and not just being happy.

"I think the biggest to help me was just kind of taking a deep breath and going day to day and pitch to pitch," Johnson said. "I think when my start day would come, all I could think about was, 'just get through six or seven (innings).' And now I literally just go pitch to pitch."