FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It was Aug. 31, 2014, a typically stifling summer Saturday in Florida. Clay Buchholz had just finished off 98-pitch, three-hit shutout of the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the best pitching performances of the season for the Boston Red Sox.
And nobody cared.
Most team officials were preoccupied by a handful of at-bats 120 miles south of Tropicana Field. In Fort Myers, at the Red Sox's training facility, Rusney Castillo was playing his first minor league game since signing a seven-year, $72.5 million contract, the largest deal ever for a Cuban defector.