FORT MYERS, Fla. — Mike Napoli danced off third base Wednesday afternoon, looking back toward the outfield. He then retreated to the bag and tagged up before putting his head down and running to the plate.

But there were no teams on the field, and JetBlue Park was empty outside of a small tour group walking through the stands. Napoli was just pretending he scored a run as part of a drill to test his readiness to finally play in a game for the Red Sox.