His brother and his father were already with the Nationals. After two years away from the game, Bret Boone decided he was not ready to give up on baseball after all and joined them.
Washington signed Boone to a non-guaranteed minor-league contract on Monday. The 38-year-old second baseman hasn’t played since the end of the 2005 season. He retired during spring training with the Mets in 2006. The Nats signed younger brother Aaron Boone as a back-up corner infielder during the offseason. Their father, former major leaguer Bob Boone, is an assistant general manager with the club and its vice president of player development.
“There’s something still in there,” Bret Boone said on Monday at Nats spring training in Viera, Fla. “I look at it as I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Bret Boone played 14 seasons for five different organizations and was named to three All-Star teams. He also won four Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger awards and ranks third all-time in home runs by a second baseman (252).
His path to a starting second baseman’s job is a difficult one, however. Both Ronnie Belliard and Felipe Lopez are established Nats competing for that spot in spring training. But Belliard and first baseman Dmitri Young signed a similar non-guaranteed minor-league contract with the team last winter, with Young eventually earning National League Comeback Player of the Year honors.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
