PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – It was a long, anxious day on which baseball seemed nearly irrelevant.

Yes, there was action on the fields. The Red Sox sent out a pair of split-squad teams to different parts of Florida to play big league spring training games. At the Sox’ minor league complex, there were workouts and drills on otherwise quiet fields, the final day before minor league spring training games commence.

But the thoughts of many in the Red Sox organization – players, coaches and front office members alike – were in Phoenix, Ariz., where 19-year-old Ryan Westmoreland was undergoing a complex procedure to remove a cavernous malformation from his brain.

At the minor league complex on Tuesday morning, one team official checked his watch to monitor how long the young outfielder had been in surgery. After the workout, and while the surgery was still in progress, a group of players bowed their heads in prayer behind a field – repeating a response that had also taken place a couple of days earlier, when news of Westmoreland’s condition became known to his teammates.

There was plenty of time to wait, reflect, worry, hope and pray. The procedure lasted five hours, a reflection of the fact that, as ESPN.com reported on Sunday, the surgery would be on Westmoreland’s brain stem, making it an incredibly delicate procedure that carried risks of neurological damage, including loss of motor function or vision.

The risks associated with the procedure – and the number of unknowns about how the Rhode Island native might come through it – spread anxiety throughout Westmoreland’s friends and teammates.

First baseman Anthony Rizzo, who became close with Westmoreland at the start of spring training this year, said that he found his friend’s condition in some ways more alarming than he had his own diagnosis with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in early 2008.

“I was actually right next to him in the training room when this was going on, when they were testing him. I said, ‘What’s wrong.’ Then …”

Rizzo paused.

“It hit a lot of us hard,” he said. “I don’t know what he’s going through, but I can relate to what he’s going through. I can’t imagine what is going through his head, but I told him to stay strong for his family. [But] it’s a lot different, what he’s going through.

“I kind of knew what to expect with what I went through. With this surgery, he has no idea what’s on the other side. I knew, for me, with chemo, what to expect, especially for the first time with how it would react. With him, no one knows any details on how he’s going to come out.”

Thus it came as a great relief to Rizzo and the Sox when news start to spread of the results of the surgery on Tuesday afternoon.

Rizzo, who had sent supportive texts to Westmoreland in recent days, was one of the first to receive an update.

 “I got a text from his good friend saying that surgery couldn’t have gone better,” he said.

Sox manager Terry Francona, on a drive from central Florida (where the Sox had played the Astros in Kissimmee) to the Gulf Coast (for a night contest against the Rays in Port Charlotte) received a similarly optimistic report from GM Theo Epstein.

“It sounds like very encouraging news,” Francona said after the Rays game. “We’re obviously thrilled about that, and thankful.”

Even so, while the initial reports were promising, members of the organization still tried to remain guarded in their reactions, mindful that Westmoreland’s condition won’t become entirely clear for some time. He will face a long and likely arduous recovery.

“[The news of his diagnosis] was definitely shocking. I feel like it hit me, too, just realizing that I’ve been through that,” said Rizzo. “I don’t know what his process will be, but it’s a long way back.”

The team underscored that fact in the press release that it issued to describe the procedure on Tuesday evening.

While declaring the surgery (performed by Dr. Robert Spetzler of the Barrow Neurological Institute) a success, the announcement also suggested that Westmoreland – who “remains in the intensive care unit but has come through the surgery well” – faces “a difficult period initially before beginning his recovery.”

What that means for Westmoreland’s future on the field is unknown – and, in many respects, irrelevant.

Westmoreland rocketed to prominence starting last summer, a year after being signed by the Sox to a $2 million bonus to begin a professional career. His potential as a Grady Sizemore-type star in centerfield was considered so immense that Boston refused to make him available in deals for players such as Roy Halladay and Felix Hernandez last summer.

He was named the top Sox prospect this offseason by several national publications. His minor league teammates insisted almost to a person that such characterizations were on the mark, thanks to a dazzling combination of speed, power and defensive ability.

Yet the player’s gifts were less on the minds of members of the Sox organization on Tuesday than the character of the person. While around his minor league teammates and before he was sent on a medical leave from the club on March 4, Westmoreland had remained in excellent spirits, even as he was dealing with the symptoms of his condition.

The way in which he handled the situation further underscored to Westmoreland's teammates that there are far greater concerns than the outfielder's baseball future. The day was about a teenager having the opportunity to enjoy a normal, healthy life, with or without baseball.

"He’s such an unbelievable person, on and off the field. He’s such a great talent. He deserves to live a great life. Hopefully he’ll come out of all of this in the best way," said Sox prospect Ryan Kalish, who befriended Westmoreland this offseason. "It’s just a shame to see what’s happened. It’s uplifting that his surgery went well, but we’ll see where it goes.

"Really, it’s not about baseball right now. It’s about the quality of life. If he comes out of this and plays baseball, it will be an amazing story. But as long as he comes out of this, whatever he does, it will be a success."