TAMPA, Fla. — It is not often that a team’s fifth outfielder shows up for spring training and is immediately surrounded at his locker by a throng of reporters, all of whom are peppering him with questions about his role, his contract and his feelings.

Of course, not all fifth outfielders are the third highest-paid player on the team, with three years and $68 million remaining on a contract that includes a full no-trade clause.

So it was Sunday for former Madras High and Oregon State standout Jacoby Ellsbury, who stood casually with a coffee cup in his hand and his foot on a chair, parrying away any inquiries that called for introspection.

“That’s fine. I’ll answer your guys’ questions,” Ellsbury said when he was asked if he understood why they were being asked of him. “Really, all you can do is control your work ethic, what you do in the offseason. We haven’t even started official spring training yet. I’m just excited to get underway.”

Ellsbury, 34, will be on the field Monday, when the New York Yankees have their first workout of spring training. And below the din of the pairing of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, one of the more interesting storylines for the Yankees will be where Ellsbury fits in.

The seven-year, $153 million contract he signed with the Yankees in 2013 has increasingly looked like a millstone, especially after he was relegated to the bench last season by the emergence of Aaron Hicks and rookie Clint Frazier. When the Yankees made a surprisingly deep run in the postseason, it was with little help from Ellsbury, who was 0 for 9 as a designated hitter and pinch-hitter.

General manager Brian Cashman said that center field, which has been Ellsbury’s domain since he made his major league debut with Boston in 2007, will be Hicks’ job to lose. With the acquisition of Stanton, who is rated by many metrics as one of the better defensive right fielders in baseball, there will be even fewer opportunities for Ellsbury to play.

And with the presence of Frazier, a former No. 4 overall draft pick who showed flashes of brilliance last season, Ellsbury will also be pushed from behind.

“We think he’s an everyday player, but the way the playoffs went, he was appearing as our DH so right now it would be disingenuous to publicly state he’s the starter when he wasn’t last October,” Cashman said of Ellsbury. “But that doesn’t deny him the opportunity to take it back.”

If the Yankees, who are about $20 million under the $197 million luxury-tax threshold, had been able to trade Ellsbury this winter — even eating a large share of his contract to make a deal happen — it would have put them in a better position to fortify their pitching staff, or consider free-agent options at second and third base. But Ellsbury is still here and he said Sunday that the Yankees had not asked him about waiving his no-trade clause.

Ellsbury said that when he met with the Yankees’ new manager, Aaron Boone, last month in Scottsdale, Arizona, where they both live, the conversation never broached his role in 2018.

“Dress code,” Ellsbury said of their talk. “Nothing serious — just casual conversation.”

Boone said he stayed away from talk about Ellsbury’s role during their lunch because he simply wanted to use the get-together to better connect with his player. His objective is to have Ellsbury look good this spring — and if he does, there will be a place for him somewhere in the mix of outfielders.

Ellsbury missed a month with a concussion last season, then hit .186 in the two months after his return before putting together a strong September.

“We’ll see where we are as far as judging the equal-footing part at the end of March,” Boone said, adding that he was more interested in seeing how fluid Ellsbury appeared in the outfield and elsewhere this spring than in any numbers he put up. “I’m not looking at Jacoby to decide if he can still play if he still looks good,’’ Boone said. “I’m certain of that. I’m certain if he’s healthy we have a good player.”