Sam Travis

Boston Red Sox's Sam Travis walks through the team's practice facility during spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Boston Red Sox prospect Sam Travis used the time down here at the JetBlue Park complex last regular season following his ACL surgery to bulk up.

Yes, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. aren't the only Red Sox players here in camp with noticeably larger biceps.

"Definitely, probably the strongest I've ever been in my life right now," Travis told MassLive.com this morning. "At the time I got hurt, I was able to work out right after. Once I had surgery, I had to take a couple weeks off just to get treatment and get going with the rehab process and keep my leg elevated."

He said it was approximately a month after the surgery he really began to hit the weight room.

"That's all I could do for so long was just work out once I started. And so might as well go as hard as I can at it. And it made me want to work even harder to get back."

Travis suffered a season-ending ACL injury playing for Triple-A Pawtucket on May 29. He's back this year and looking impressive so far in camp.

The 2014 second-round draft pick out of Indiana University certainly could help out the 2017 team.

As mentioned on this site the other day, Travis bats from the right side and has had success vs. both righties and lefties in his minor league career. But he could potentially be eased into the majors at some point this year by platooning at first base with the left-handed hitting Mitch Moreland. In that scenario, Hanley Ramirez then would become the full-time DH.

"After a couple of months I was able to do stationary picks, do some light toss," Travis said. "I wasn't hitting until after the New Year."

When he said he's the strongest he has ever been, he means both lower- and upper-body strength.

"Just all-around strength," he said. "Endurance. It's all there. Like I said, I'm just trying to work as hard as I can to come back even better.

"Obviously the goal is to play in the big leagues for a long time, win a lot of championships," Travis added. "Whatever they tell me to do to help the team win, that's what I'm here to do."

Travis did hear that an anonymous scout last year describe him as "the next Paul Goldschmidt."

"Just some ridiculous thing," he said. "He's a phenomenal player."

So how does he describe himself?

"To tell you the truth, I just want to win," Travis said. "That's it. Don't matter if I go 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Or If I'm sitting on the bench that day and we win, I'm walking off that field that day happy. ... Anything I do around here, I'm going as hard as I can all the time. There's no excuses for me not to."

He certainly has power-hitting potential. He has posted a .303 batting average, .364 on-base percentage, .453 slugging percentage, .816 OPS, 22 homers, 58 doubles, eight triples and 151 RBIs in 245 minor league games.

CHICAGO NATIVE AND BIG HURT FAN

Travis was college teammates at Indiana with Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber, and so he obviously was pulling for the Cubs in the World Series.

But Travis, a Chicago native, grew up a White Sox fan.

"Favorite player of all-time, Frank Thomas," he said. "I still tell people, 'They don't call him the Big Hurt for no reason.'"

His family lived in the city until Travis was in the second grade.

"And then I moved to the southwest suburbs, Orland Park," he said. "It's like 20 minutes southwest of the city."

He said he attended quite a few White Sox games growing up.

"More at the younger age when I had more time," he said. "The older you get, the more serious you become with the baseball career. And I traveled and stuff like that. So you don't have as much time."

Did he hate the Cubs growing up?

"I wouldn't say I really disliked them," Travis said. "If they won or they lost, I didn't really have any feeling about it. I'd definitely watch them if they were on and the White Sox weren't just because it was a baseball game. But I definitely wanted to see Kyle do well. It's awesome to see what he did."