KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Human beings are inherently selfish. It’s just how we’re wired.

It’s probably an evolutionary thing, dating back to when hording an extra ounce of mastodon meat might’ve meant the difference between surviving the winter and spending eternity in a polar ice cap.

We think of ourselves first and everyone else second, which is why it’s OK to admit if your reaction upon hearing the awful news about Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton getting hit in the face was how it would impact the Red Sox’ pursuit of him this winter.

That situation obviously became extremely complicated the moment a fastball from Milwaukee’s Mike Fiers drilled Stanton just below the left eye on Thursday night, bloodying the field, fracturing multiple bones in his face, and leaving him with broken teeth embedded in his cheek.

Stanton is a candidate to win the National League MVP, with 37 homers and 105 RBI. At age 25 (in November), he figured to be a prime target of the Red Sox this winter, particularly if the Marlins failed in their goal to sign him to the biggest contract in team history, as reported by USA Today. On the open market, he might command $300 million.

Except now we have no idea what the future holds. The good news out of Miami yesterday was that Stanton didn’t suffer any damage to his eye or the orbital bone protecting it. Players like former Astros All-Star Dickie Thon and Twins Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett experienced vision problems after getting hit and were never the same; Puckett never played again after Dennis Martinez drilled him in 1995.

But even if Stanton completes a 100 percent recovery, we won’t know until he steps back in the box next spring what kind of mental toll the incident has exacted, and this is probably the most troubling aspect of any potential trade — what if he’s gun-shy? Can you justify the cost in prospects and cash it would take to acquire Stanton without knowing for sure that he’s the same player?

Red Sox reliever Burke Badenhop played with Stanton on the 2010 and 2011 Marlins. He got to see Stanton’s first two seasons and the gigantic strides the youngster made.

“A lot of people see the natural tools,” Badenhop said before the Red Sox visited the Royals last night. “He’s built like a Transformer. He’s a monster. He’s got tremendous raw power. But he’s really worked to get to where he’s been. I saw the strides he made in ’10. He was just a big old horse out there, so raw and unrefined. They basically had to teach him how to throw. He didn’t take good routes to the ball. Just a really raw kid.

“You see a lot of guys that are athletes that never become ballplayers. You’re really seeing Mike Stanton — he was Mike when I played with him, now he’s Giancarlo — start to become a ballplayer, which is scary, but also great for our game. We need guys like that, especially in that Miami market.”

The Boston market would welcome him, too, a fact of which Badenhop is well aware. He compares the goofy, self-effacing Stanton to slugger David Ortiz.

“Who wouldn’t want him, though?” he said. “There’s very few teams that have the ability to, whether it’s money or prospects, to make it happen. I think our team would probably match up. There might be a couple of others. At the same point, who knows. That would be a monumental deal.

“I’m a Red Sox. I’d love to see Giancarlo Stanton on the Red Sox. But I’d also like to see him get a deal that will keep him in Florida. So many of those fans have been burned in the past.”

We can’t contemplate Stanton’s future until we know how he responds from this injury.

“Mike Stanton going down is not a good thing,” Badenhop said. “Hopefully he can bounce back and continue to be the superstar for baseball that we want him and need him to be.”