Brent Dlugach had a few questions for Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava when he arrived at the Red Sox facility last week. He wanted to know where he needed to go to work out. He wanted to know where he needed to go to eat.

What the 27-year-old infielder found out from McDonald and Nava, two players against whom he played when he was at Triple-A Toledo, was even more important than that.

"The guys I've talked to that have been here, they've all said that this is a great organization to be with and that, if you play well, you get your shot," Dlugach said. "That's what any player wants to hear."

The Red Sox acquired Dlugach -- pronounced duh-LOO-gatch -- from the Detroit Tigers in early November, eventually designating him for assignment and outrighting him to Triple-A Pawtucket. The idea presumably is to stash him away as minor-league depth in case there's a need in the infield somewhere, particularly at shortstop.

The Red Sox, of course, already have two big-league-caliber shortstops in Jed Lowrie and Marco Scutaro. But they had two big-league-caliber shortstops two years ago, too, before both Lowrie and Julio Lugo went down with injuries before the end of April. Minor-league no-name Nick Green wound up playing more than 100 games for the Red Sox, hitting 18 doubles and driving in 35 runs.

McDonald and Nava, who both took less-than-traditional paths to the big leagues, provide the same type of inspirational example.

"It's really all about getting that opportunity and, when you do get it, taking advantage of it," Dlugach said.

At this point, Dlugach is grateful to have any opportunity at all. A shoulder injury suffered when diving for a ground ball early in the 2007 season knocked him out for close to two full seasons. He didn't return to the field until the end of the 2008 season as part of the a instructional-league contingent. Until then, all he could do was rehab in Lakeland, Fla., at the Tigers' spring-training facility.

"I've been in slumps hitting and fielding, but that's the biggest mental battle I've had," he said. "Being in the training room every day as opposed to out on the field with your team, that's just tough. You want to be out there, but you can't. It's as big a mental battle as it is physical."

Dlugach returned to the field healthy at the start of the 2009 season, and he hit .294 with a .349 on-base percentage in more than 500 plate appearances at Triple-A Toledo. He hit 36 doubles and nine home runs.

He even made his major-league debut, earning a call-up to Detroit in September when rosters were expanded to 40. He appeared in five games and came to the plate three times. He scored a run as a pinch-runner in his first major-league appearance.

"It was probably one of the biggest accomplishments I've had," he said. "You don't always come back from shoulder surgery. I prayed a lot about it. I worked hard. It was just one of those things that worked out. I made sure I thanked all those people that were there for me during the injury."

Dlugach played all of last season back at Toledo, and he'll likely open this season as the starting shortstop at Pawtucket. It might take quite a few breaks to get him onto the Red Sox roster anytime before roster expansion in September.

But Dlugach has learned how to be patient. He's learned how to deal with day-to-day frustrations. His shoulder surgery taught him that.

"I matured a lot over that year and a half, learning how to deal with things, realizing that an 0-for-4 isn't that bad," he said. "It's not near as bad as sitting in a dorm room in Lakeland."