Heath Hembree

This is Heath Hembree on Boston Red Sox picture day at spring training 2016. His hair is longer now. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Boston Red Sox right-handed reliever Heath Hembree didn't pay a visit to the barber during the offseason. His curly hair is down to his shoulders.

He also still has the same full beard he had last season.

Red Sox fans have joked with him on Twitter, telling him he looks like the character Kenny Powers (a major league pitcher) from the show "Eastbound & Down" that aired on HBO from 2009-13.

Hembree is "cool" with the comparison. He even retweeted the following:

"I've gotten it quite a bit lately," Hembree said. "Kenny Powers (comparisons), I started getting some last year. I'm guess it's just the curls, the long hair. But it's cool when people tweet me like that. I have some fun with them."

They do look similar and both bring the heat. Hembree's fastball averaged 93.9 mph during 2016, per Fangraphs.com.

But their personalities are completely different. Powers was rude and he thought he was the best player on the team. Hembree is very soft spoken and respectful.

The above photo is Hembree on photo day at spring training 2016. The photo right below is from camp this past Monday.

Boston Red Sox reliever Heath Hembree throws the ball during a workout at spring training in Fort Myers, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Fans likely will see much more of Hembree this year. He's out of minor league options. His options caused him to bounce back and forth from Triple-A Pawtucket the past two seasons.

Hembree went 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 38 outings (51 innings) for Boston during 2016.

He dominated right-handed hitters, holding them to a .201/.255/.336/.591 line but left-handed batters slashed .338/.397/.493/.890 against him.

Red Sox manager John Farrell doesn't want to make him a right-handed specialist though.

"It's a clearcut development plan per se for Heath in spring training," Farrell said. "I thought there was some improvement late last season with the attack of left-handers. The numbers bear it out: He was very good against right-handers. But what we don't want to do is limit him into a specialist. He's got too good of stuff. And if we take a little bit different approach against some left-handers, with some first pitch and some sequencing, we feel like those numbers will balance out a little bit more."

Hembree added about facing lefties, "I don't think it's necessarily anything with my stuff or on the physical side. I think it's just more my the mental approach."

He said he thinks left-handed batters came to expect that he would pitch away against them.

"When they see that all the time and expect that, it's pretty easy to hit that so right now I'm just being conscious of moving the ball in and out, varying pitches," he said. "But as far as stuff-wise, the stuff last year was good enough to get them out. It was just wrong execution, wrong time, showed them too many of the same looks."

Farrell and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski both have spoken very highly of Hembree but Hembree isn't approaching this spring training like he's guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day 25-man roster.

"For me, I'm just going to take it like every other spring training," Hembree said. "I still feel like I'm competing for a spot. I'm not going to take anything for granted because I've had my ups and downs in the past. I know any time I'm given an opportunity, and especially an opportunity to pitch at the big league level, it's not anything I take for granted. So definitely going to put my work in and compete like I'm fighting and I need a job."