Free-agent infielder Eduardo Nunez has spent a good portion of his career in the American League East, and it appears as though he could be competing in it yet again in 2018.
Nunez reportedly has gotten some interest from a pair of his former teams, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Tampa Bay Rays are in the mix as well.
Both #Yankees and #RedSox have shown interest in free-agent IF Eduardo Nunez, sources say. #Rays, in need of right-handed hitting, also have checked in. Rays monitoring RH bats even while continuing to listen on Odorizzi, Colome, etc. Odorizzi could go to a Darvish runner-up.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 6, 2018
Nunez most recently played for the Red Sox, putting together a solid tenure in Boston that spanned 38 games. And with Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia likely out to begin the 2018 season due to surgery on his left knee, new manager Alex Cora may have to get creative in how he fills the position.
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski noted in December that Nunez still was on the Red Sox’s radar, and the Boston Herald’s Chad Jennings indicated Sunday that the Red Sox have been in touch with the utility man.
“Marco Hernandez has been singled out as a favorite, but Brock Holt, Deven Marrero and Tzu-Wei Lin certainly are in that mix,” Jennings wrote of the Red Sox’s second base situation. “It’s also worth noting that veteran Eduardo Nunez still is available on the free agent market, and he hasn’t lost contact with the Red Sox.”
Nunez was acquired by the Red Sox from the San Francisco Giants just ahead of the 2017 non-waiver trade deadline. He hit .321 with eight home runs with Boston, but was sidelined for nearly the entire postseason after re-aggravating a knee injury during his first at-bat of the American League Division Series against the Houston Astros.
He began his career with the Yankees, and played his first four MLB seasons in The Bronx before getting traded to the Minnesota Twins in 2014.
