Eaton bolsters the Red Sox’ organizational position player depth heading into next season. The 27-year-old, who has made appearances at four different spots defensively in the big leagues since 2022, spent all of last year at Triple-A Omaha in Kansas City’s system, batting .259/.299/.439 with 16 homers and 27 steals across 464 plate appearances. He’s a non-factor for fantasy purposes at the moment. However, it wouldn’t be shocking if he were in the mix during spring training for a bench role on Boston’s season-opening roster.

Eaton entered the game as a pinch-runner for Maikel Garcia in the fourth inning and came around to score on an RBI double off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino. He then led off the sixth inning with a triple off of Ben Lively and scored on a ground ball by Pasquantino. The 27-year-old then clubbed a go-ahead two-run homer off of Juan Zapata in the ninth inning that proved to be the difference in the ballgame. It was a nice step in the right direction for Eaton, but he remains a longshot to head north with the Royals for Opening Day.

Eaton got the Royals on the board in the fifth inning as he socked a leadoff dinger off of Gavin Hollowell to pull them to within a run at 2-1. That would be his only hit in four trips to the plate on the day. The versatile 27-year-old is facing an extremely uphill battle at cracking the Royals’ Opening Day roster and will almost certainly begin the 2024 season as extra infield depth at Triple-A Omaha.

Eaton passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment last week and will likely remain with Kansas City as extra organizational depth. The 26-year-old got into 29 games this past season for the Royals.