FORT MYERS, Fla. — Tyler O’Neill won two Gold Gloves playing left field for the Cardinals, but he’s rarely patrolled an outfield like Fenway Park’s.

Between the Green Monster in left field, the triangle in center and huge expansive grass in right, adjusting to the ballpark’s unique dimensions has been one of the first orders of business for the new Red Sox outfielder.

“I’m loving it. Fenway is such a unique ballpark and you don’t see anything like it anywhere else in the world,” O’Neill said after Monday’s 7-6 walk-off win over Philadelphia. “It’s so unique, intricate, it’s going to take practice just to get comfortable with all three positions out there.”

Right now the plan is for O’Neill to primarily play left field, and manager Alex Cora said he’ll play there almost exclusively in spring training to help get him used to the big wall, but there is still a lot of uncertainty over how the club will ultimately use him. It’s possible he may eventually bump to center or right depending on the matchup, and whether or not Ceddanne Rafaela makes the team could have a huge effect on the ultimate outfield alignment as well.

O’Neill acknowledged he hasn’t been told what his role will be, but he believes he has a lot to offer.

“I’m not sure, first and foremost I want to be contributing every day,” said O’Neill, who went 1 for 2 with a walk and a run scored while batting leadoff. “I know I have a role to play on this team and we have a lot of potential and we’re a good hitting ballclub in a hitters park, so I want to play my role there and do everything I can to be in a good position physically for 160 games.”

When fully healthy O’Neill has shown he’s capable of performing at an All-Star level. In 2021 he earned MVP consideration after hitting 34 home runs with 80 RBI, 15 stolen bases and a .912 OPS. He’s been limited by injury to fewer than 100 games in each of the last two seasons since, but right now is fully healthy and has spent the whole offseason working to ensure he stays that way.

Cora said he’s been impressed by the 28-year-old, who has already demonstrated an elite first step and who he hopes can help address one of the club’s longest standing weaknesses — outfield decision-making.

“He hasn’t been tested with that, runner’s at first, where do we throw the ball, but he moves fast and he brings an edge to the lineup,” Cora said.

Beyond his talents on the field, one of the first things that stands out about O’Neill is his physique. The son of a champion bodybuilder and former Mr. Canada winner, O’Neill has made weightlifting an essential part of his life from a young age, and that dedication helped elevate him from a relatively undersized kid to one of MLB’s best athletes.

“I started out as a smaller kid, I was never the tallest kid nor the biggest kid, but I was able to put on size in high school and put some pop in my bat with the stuff I did in the weight room,” said O’Neill, who is listed at 5-foot-11, 200 pounds. “Just understanding rep schemes and the importance of dieting and just the discipline in general definitely put me a step ahead early.”

Ironically, one of O’Neill’s top contenders for the title of MLB’s most ripped player could wind up lining up to his left at Fenway Park. Between Jarren Duran, O’Neill and the rest of Boston’s outfield contenders, the Red Sox should wind up having one of their most dynamic outfields in recent memory.

But for anyone imagining what it must be like when O’Neill and Duran hit the gym together, O’Neill said it doesn’t happen as often as you’d think.

“Unfortunately we’re on different schedules, I like to get my stuff done in the morning, he’s kind of post-baseball activities,” O’Neill said. “But he’s jacked man, it’s fun to see him throw some weight around in there. Same mentality as me, he just wants to get after it, lift some heavy weights and stuff and obviously he’s so athletic.”

Houck perfect

Tanner Houck was perfect in his spring debut, throwing two scoreless innings with no hits, no walks and no strikeouts. He threw 21 pitches, 15 for strikes.

Notably, Cora said this weekend that Houck’s velocity is up the most of anyone on the team. That wasn’t immediately evident Monday — his fastball averaged 94-95 mph and his cutter 90-91, both in line with his season averages last year — but Cora said he was happy with what he saw and Houck said he doesn’t usually pay attention to his velo this early in camp anyway.

“I’ll get in my head about that and think I need to try and throw harder and start overthrowing, then mechanics get out of whack,” Houck said. “I know if I stay smooth, smooth is quick, so as long as I stay on that path I like where the velo is at.”

Lucas Luetge allowed a two-run home run to Whit Merrifield in the third inning, Chase Shugart pitched a scoreless fourth and Andrew Politi allowed a run in the fifth. Philadelphia did the rest of its damage against the Red Sox minor leaguers, including a pair of home runs off Brian Van Belle in the top of the sixth.

Refsnyder on a roll

Through two games Rob Refsnyder has been a run-producing machine. After knocking in two RBI in Sunday’s win over the Twins, the outfielder followed things up with another two RBI effort, going 1 for 2 with an RBI single and a run-scoring groundout.

Rafael Devers, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida each went 0 for 2 with a walk. Catcher Tyler Heineman also went 2 for 2 with a run and second baseman Nick Yorke went 1 for 2 with a walk and two runs scored, including the game-winning run on a wild pitch to give Boston the walk-off in the bottom of the ninth.

Next up

The Red Sox hit the road Tuesday to face the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m.