The tests didn't stop for Jose Iglesias Sunday just because he was now a major leaguer. All that meant were more answers and eyebrow-raising impressions.

First, the introduction to Fenway Park.

"The first time he was on this field, I told him the grass is low and it's a little quicker. So he went out and took grounders at his normal depth, which is shallower than most people. Then after about 10 ground balls he turned to me and said, 'I've got to play deeper. This is too fast.' So he started playing a little bit deeper and made that adjustment," Red Sox infield coach Tim Bogar said.

Then, just before the infielder made his big league debut as a defensive replacement for Jed Lowrie in the eighth inning of the Red Sox' 9-5 win over the Twins, came the second curveball.

"I was happy, I was super happy and it was funny because [Marco] Scutaro hid my glove right before I went out, so I couldn't find it and finally found it and was able to get out there a little late," Iglesias explained through translator Eddie Romero Jr., noting that he eventually located his piece of equipment behind one of the television cameras.

Nothing seems to get by Iglesias. Infield grass. Hidden baseball gloves. The English language. It is no coincidence the Cuban defector has mastered every challenge that has come his way since signing with the Red Sox in the summer of 2009. Iglesias isn't your average shortstop, but he also isn't your average 21-year-old.

As good as his ability to field a baseball is, it might be Iglesias' intelligence that will be the greatest difference-maker.

"You could tell his baseball IQ right off the bat and you hoped that would translate to other aspects off the field. There was no doubt once we started to get to know the kid that was the case," said Romero, the Red Sox coordinator of Latin American operations. "I remember when he first came to the States having a discussion about real estate with him. He's interested. He's very aware. He knows what's going on in the world. He's a bright kid and he's very eager to learn."

Iglesias' rise to the Red Sox is undoubtedly faster than his original career blueprint might have suggested (the team would have promoted Yamaico Navarro if not for an injury). And once Marco Scutaro's strained left oblique has sufficiently healed, the young shortstop will head back to Triple-A Pawtucket to continue his regularly scheduled progression.

But it is Iglesias' intelligence and ability to process waves of information that will make this stay so important.  The pitching. The routines. The major league way of doing things. This isn't a kid who is going to pocket his new per diem and rest on the new title of "major leaguer." As two of the members of the Red Sox organization who first came in contact with Iglesias, Red Sox director of international scouting Craig Shipley and former Sox scout Johnny DiPuglia (now the head of the Nationals' international scouting department), can attest, Iglesias was unique from the get-go.

"Ship asked him a lot of questions about different aspects of the game and the kid answered them with really, really good intelligence," said DiPuglia, who first met Iglesias when the infielder was 15 years old, playing in an international tournament in Mexico. "I remember when we first met him, he stood out intelligence-wise. 

"Me and Ship have a relationship with these kids where we would get to their level, and we would kiddingly make fun of him, saying, 'You don't know how to speak English.' He would get mad, and every time he would come back to see us he would give us a whole new sentence. He's a bright kid who is fun to be around."

Fair or not, it is Iglesias' ability to speak English that perhaps offers the best example of his advanced intelligence. While the Red Sox understandably had Romero serve as a translation safety net on Sunday, Iglesias conducted all of his own interviews in English throughout spring training, and he speaks the language as well as any foreign player in the Sox clubhouse.

Iglesias participated in the normal methods of learning the language, attending classes sponsored by the organization. But that wasn't enough. He understood the importance of being able to communicate with his new teammates, and how that progression was going to accelerate the path to the big leagues.

"He made a concerted effort to immerse himself in the culture," Romero said. "He recognized early that learning the language would help him as a player. He watched a lot of TV and movies, and it wasn't just for entertainment. It was also to use as an educational tool for him. The desire with the ability to grasp information and apply it so quickly was what led him to this point. But he had a very good start from an aptitude standpoint and from an intelligence standpoint that allowed him to learn as quickly as he did.

"We were driving to Miami and we had a conversation where it was kind of like an English lesson. We were talking about items in the hotel room, and he said, 'Shower curtain.' I was like, 'Wow, that's pretty advanced.' I though he would just be talking about things like beds. It was impressive. That just goes to show you when he's away from the field he was also doing it on his own. That's why at this point he has made the advancements that he has."

The innate ability to pick things up quickly wasn't just reserved for learning the new language. As moments like the one Bogar experienced Sunday on the Fenway field showed, it doesn't take long for Iglesias to figure things out.

"I remember one time David Ortiz came over to hit with him in BP, and David stayed inside the ball really well and tried to hit the ball the other way in BP," DiPuglia said. "The day before, Iglesias was trying to show that he had some power so he was trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but when he saw David hit he copied his routine and started staying inside the ball and hitting the ball the other way. He kind of looked like Placido Polanco, hitting-wise. It caught my eye how he made such an adjustment in such a quick amount of time."

"God works in mysterious ways. This is probably a great development for him, to understand how to play at Fenway and even Yankee Stadium next week. It should be awesome for him."

It is simply another classroom for the Red Sox' star student.

"From the start we knew in engaging him he was a very bright kid and he had a very high baseball IQ. He knew little things and had tremendous instincts. And then when you talked to him he explained his thought process and was very advanced for a kid that age," Romero said. "Then when he came to the States he was very interested it the culture and was open-minded about everything. When he started working with our coaches they all raved about him making adjustments and his overall aptitude. It has been really impressive."