Red Sox in agreement with Eduardo Nunez one one-year deal with an option

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It may not be the free agent signing most had been anticipating, but the Red Sox struck with a surprise addition Thursday night, reaching agreement with infielder Eduardo Nunez on a one-year deal with an option for 2019, according to a major league source.

Nunez, who the Sox obtained last July as part of a deadline deal, must first pass a physical for the deal to become official, and that is not assured, given the knee troubles he has dealt with in the past year.

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Nunez had been hoping to land a deal somewhere where he could be assured of playing every day, and coming back to the Sox does not offer that guarantee. But Nunez will handle second base until Dustin Pedroia returns from offseason knee surgery, then serve as a nice insurance option at second, while being able to fill in at shortstop and third base.

Pedroia is expected to be out until at least mid-May and will likely need regular time off even after returning to action. He underwent surgery to repair microfractures in his knee last November.

As a right-handed bat, he provides a handy alternative at third to lefty-hitting Rafael Devers and though his work at shortstop can be spotty, provides Xander Bogaerts with an experienced backup. In the last few years, Bogaerts has slumped in the second half, in part because of the heavy workload he's carried.

Until Nunez agreed to the deal Thursday night, the Sox were staring at the prospect of finding a temporary replacement from Pedroia from among a number of lesser options, including Brock Holt, Deven Marrero, Marco Hernandez and Tzu-Wei Lin.

Nunez, 30, played in 38 games with the Sox after being obtained from San Francisco for two lower-level pitching prospects, posting a slash line of .321/.353/.539. He added eight homers and 27 RBI while stealing six bases in eight attempts. While he didn't necessarily bolster the team's power supply, he did provide some offensive spark at the top of the lineup.

In three months with the Red Sox, Nunez battled knee injuries, with one sprain sidelining him for the final three weeks of the season. Nunez came back and appeared in one game over the final weekend of the regular season, which gave the Sox reason to believe he would be healthy for the post-season.

But in Game 1 of the ALDS against Houston, Nunez aggravated the injury, collapsing in the batter's box in his first at-bat and didn't play again in the series. He did not undergo surgery on the knee after the season, with doctors determining it wasn't necessary.

Nunez is one of several free agents to come to terms in the last week, as the free agent market slowly begins to show signs of a thaw. Nearly 100 players remain unsigned as camps open in Florida and Arizona this week.

Should Nunez's signing become official, it will not disqualify the Red Sox from continuing their interest in J.D. Martinez, who has been their main target for much of the off-season. Martinez, who profiles as exactly the power bat the Sox need to improve an offense which finished at the bottom of the American League in homers in 2017.

The Sox are believed to have a five-year offer on the table for Martinez, worth between $100-$125 million, depending on reports. To date, Martinez and his agent Scott Boras have deemed that offer insufficient, while the Red Sox, being unaware of a competing offer better than their own, have effectively declined to bid against themselves.