FORT MYERS, Fla. — When Nolan Arenado took the field for pregame warmups ahead of Tuesday night’s Red Sox exhibition vs. Puerto Rico, the future Hall of Fame third baseman crossed paths with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora, shaking their hands and holding a brief conversation with each.

For a quick moment, it was a look at what might have been.

Long viewed as a potential trade target for the Red Sox toward the end of his tenure with the St. Louis Cardinals, Arenado was finally dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks this past January, ending a two-year saga as the Cardinals looked to kickstart their rebuilding effort.

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Throughout that time the Red Sox were viewed as a logical landing spot, but while the club ultimately opted to pursue Alex Bregman, Arenado acknowledged the thought of playing for Boston crossed his mind.

And more specifically, the thought of being reunited with his former Colorado Rockies teammate Trevor Story.

“Yeah it did, a few times, but everything happens for a reason. Nothing is done until it’s done,” Arenado said. “Obviously playing with Story would have been amazing. That’s my boy. I had a lot of great time playing with him for almost eight years, but it’s part of the game.”

An eight-time All-Star and a 10-time Gold Glove winner, Arenado is widely viewed as one of the greatest defensive third basemen in history and for many years was an elite offensive performer. The 34-year-old has a career .282 average with 353 home runs, 1,184 RBI and an .846 OPS, and he has also won five Silver Sluggers, most recently in 2022.

But recently Arenado’s production has tailed off, and last season he batted just .237 with a .666 OPS in only 107 games, the fewest he’s ever played in a 162-game season.

Arenado said that while he was aware the Cardinals were looking to trade him, he was never sure how close he came to landing in Boston.

“I don’t know, I really don’t know, you never know with those things,” Arenado said. “You just hear things, you talk to your agent and you hear the different things, but I really have no idea how close it really was.”

Arenado wound up being dealt to the Diamondbacks in exchange for 22-year-old pitching prospect Jack Martinez. He called joining the D-Backs “a new chapter,” albeit one he was happy to put on pause when the opportunity to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic presented itself.

“I expected to go home and just have a normal spring training, and then I was actually hitting in St. Louis and Martin Maldonado was catching and he asked me, ‘Hey would you be interested in playing first base?’” said Arenado, who has previously played for Team USA in the WBC. “I was like I don’t know man, let me think about that.

“Then I talked to (Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina) and obviously I thought (Francisco) Lindor and (Carlos) Correa were going to be here so I was like, ‘I’ll play first, you know? Why not? It’d be awesome.’ My family was excited about it, so obviously all of those things changed, but like I said, I’m just thankful that they asked me, it’s an honor.”

With Lindor and Correa among many notable players who were unable to get insurance approval to play, Arenado was at his usual third base spot when Puerto Rico and the Red Sox took the field under the lights in front of an energetic, heavily pro-Puerto Rico crowd.

And while Puerto Rico isn’t considered a favorite compared to the loaded teams being fielded by the USA, Dominican Republic and Japan, Arenado thinks his group could surprise a few people.

“I think we have better pitching than what most people think,” Arenado said. “Our lineup is solid, a lot of good hitters, we can run and I think we can catch the ball. We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re going to be tough, this team is always tough and we have a lot of great coaches that are going to help us out. So we’re going to give it everything we got and we’ll see what happens.”

Teams interested in Vazquez

One Puerto Rican player in Fort Myers this week who Red Sox fans know well is Christian Vazquez. The longtime Red Sox catcher, who spent nine seasons with the club between 2014-22, is back with Team Puerto Rico for his second World Baseball Classic after previously representing the island territory in 2023.

Vazquez also remains a free agent after spending the last three seasons with the Minnesota Twins, though he said he’s gotten interest from clubs and expects to sign soon.

“Yeah we have a couple of teams so I’m not worried about that,” Vazquez said. “I’ve got a couple years more in my tank and it feels good, my body’s in good shape, arm’s good.”

A two-time World Series champion, the 35-year-old had a tough season at the plate in 2025, batting .189 with a .545 OPS in 65 games. Vazquez did perform better in the Puerto Rican Winter League, however, batting .295 with eight walks against only four strikeouts in 13 games.

Bennett struggles

Playing a rare spring night game, Red Sox pitching prospect Jake Bennett got the start and had a tough time against the Puerto Rican bats.

Bennett recorded only two outs over parts of two innings and was charged with three runs on four hits with one walk. The 25-year-old allowed a leadoff single, drew a groundout and gave up two more singles, threw two wild pitches and allowed a walk before being pulled with one out in the first.

He then returned to start the second but did not fare any better, allowing another single, hitting a batter with a pitch and drawing a fly out before earning the hook for good.

Bennett threw 35 pitches, 19 for strikes. Former Red Sox prospect Elmer Rodriguez, who the club traded to get Carlos Narvaez, started for Puerto Rico and allowed one hit over three scoreless innings.

Smooth fielding

Marcelo Mayer and Isiah Kiner-Falefa both made some slick plays in the field. Starting at second base, Mayer had one play where he scooped the ball and flipped it with his glove to Kiner-Falefa at first to nail Arenado to end the top of the second. Then shortly afterward, Kiner-Falefa leapt up to corral a high throw from Story, and he later turned an impressive 3-2 double play, forcing out MJ Melendez at first before gunning down Luis Vazquez at the plate.

Coming up next

Garrett Crochet will make his second start of the spring Wednesday when the Red Sox host the New York Yankees at JetBlue Park. Justin Slaten, Payton Tolle, Tayron Guerrero and Noah Song are slated to pitch for Boston as well, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m ET.