McAdam: Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi, no strangers to Red Sox, experiencing a first

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce are doing things backward.

They've already won a World Series with the Red Sox. Now, they're currently experiencing their first spring training with the club.

That's not how things typically work. Usually, a new player joins a team in the offseason, gets to know his new teammates in February and March and then begins the regular season.

Not Eovaldi and Pearce, however. They arrived in midseason trades, played huge roles in October (Pearce was the World Series MVP while Eovaldi achieved near-mythic status with his marathon relief stint in Game 4), and then re-signed with the Sox as free agents.

Only now are they finally experiencing jetBlue Park and going through the paces of getting ready for the regular season.

On Pearce's first day in camp, he parked on the wrong side of the ballpark and had to move his car into the player's lot on the other side of the complex.

Little things, for sure, but an adjustment nonetheless.

"It's funny,'' said Pearce. "There are all these familiar faces, but we're out there stretching and someone says, 'OK, go to Field 4,' and I'm like, 'Where's that? I don't know.' And they look at me, like...'Oh, that's right, you got here midseason.' I've been getting that a lot. Earlier this week, I was told physicals are in the visiting team's cafeteria. I was like, 'Where is that at?' I always get a funny look, and then it dawns on them -- I wasn't here last year; I don't know where anything is.

"I still don't where everything is. I'm just following people around and trying to figure it out.''

So, Pearce hit three homers in the final two games of the World Series, took part in the celebratory parade, received a rousing ovation at the annual Boston Baseball Writers Dinner ... and is just now learning where he needs to be every morning.

Thanks to his circuitous tour of the American League East -- he's now played for all five franchises -- Pearce had played at jetBlue Park countless times as a member of the Orioles or Rays or Blue Jays or Yankees. But not until this weekend will he have played a game as a member of the home team.

It helps that Pearce and Eovaldi don't have to learn any new teammates. After all, with no new players from outside the organization added to the 40-man roster this past winter, they themselves remain "the new guys.''

"It's definitely something new,'' acknowledged Eovaldi with a chuckle. "We're still learning the facility, what field to go to. We got here last year, won the ultimate goal with the team, but we haven't done all the little things in a way. But we've been to spring training before -- you know the routine. We'll get used to it.''

Pearce's spring training came in June when he was obtained from Toronto to help the Red Sox improve their lot against lefties. He was briefly introduced to Alex Cora, met his teammates in the visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, and immediately felt welcomed and part of the team. Everything clicked from the start.

Eovaldi came over just before the July non-waiver deadline. August -- his first full month with his team -- was his spring training.

"We joined something that was already going,'' said Eovaldi.

It all happened very quickly and there was no time for the gradual buildup that takes place. It's as though he jumped on a moving train last summer, but this spring, he's part of the long journey as the train slowly pulls out of the station.

"We're in the trenches right now,'' said Pearce. "Everybody's trying to find their footing, get their rhythm and timing down and get back into it. So, we're all in this together and it's nice that we get to kind of build that foundation going into the season.''

This year offers the two players an opportunity to be part of the fabric from Day 1 and that's a prospect they relish.

"Don't get me wrong — winning the World Series was the best thing that I've ever done in baseball,'' Eovaldi said. "But the one thing I wish I could have done was start (here) from spring training with them and be able to win the World Series from the very start to finish. I don't want to speak for Steve, but I think that's both of our goals: to start with the team in spring training and be able to finish it out with another one.

"We definitely had our roles, but it would be nice to see it through the whole way this time.''