If you like a little drama with your baseball, look no further than the 2025 Boston Red Sox, who have a bit of a situation on their hands.
The predicament is a clear butting of heads between disgruntled superstar Rafael Devers and the Red Sox front office, most notably the team’s chief baseball officer, Craig Breslow. Devers told reporters Thursday in Boston that he was recently asked to begin working at first base following Triston Casas’ season-ending knee injury. His answer, in short: No.
Before this season, Devers begrudgingly agreed to become the team’s full-time designated hitter following the signing of third baseman Alex Bregman. And while it took a little time for Devers to get comfortable — you might recall his 0-for-19 start to the season — lately the three-time All-Star has been looking more like the hitter we expect him to be, with a 138 wRC+ over the past month.
But now, asked to pick up a glove again, Devers has clearly had enough of the Red Sox’s requests.
“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” Devers told reporters Thursday. “In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH, so right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.
“They put me in this situation, and they told me that they didn’t want to allow me to play any other position. Now, I think they should do their jobs, essentially, and hit the market and look for another player. I’m not sure why they want me to be in-between the way they have been.”
This frustration isn’t new for Devers, nor is it really about playing first base. This quandary has clearly been brewing since spring training, when the team signed the free-agent Bregman to play third — the spot Devers believed was his long-term following his signing a 10-year, $313.5 million extension in 2022.
When asked at the time if he’d be willing to move from third base, Devers didn’t hide his feelings.
“I play third,” he said in English back in March.
“They asked me the question about playing DH, and I gave them the answer that I just gave: No,” he continued in Spanish.
Then something happened behind the scenes, because days later, in his next session with the media, Devers said he would do whatever the team needed him to do to win. Conversations with manager Alex Cora likely helped rectify matters.
And after that, everything was cool, right? The Red Sox had a group hug and let it go?
Nah, not even close.
Because if there’s one person who clearly hasn’t moved past this, it’s Devers. Not only has he not gotten over what happened in the spring, but he has also made very clear his displeasure with Breslow for putting him in the lose-lose situation of having to answer the question at all.
“I don’t understand some of the decisions that the GM makes,” Devers continued on Thursday. “Next thing you know, someone in the outfield gets hurt, and they want me to play in the outfield. I think I know the kind of player that I am, and that’s just where I stand.”
Can Rafael Devers and the Red Sox smooth things out before it’s too late? (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
How did the Red Sox mishandle this?
The Red Sox have a big problem on their hands, and it’s not just Devers. It’s the fact that they tried to resolve their positional flux before the season started, and it actually worked. But in light of Casas’ injury, they went to the well one too many times, and their franchise centerpiece told them to take a hike.
Boston could’ve avoided this entire headache had they split Devers’ time between first base and DH during spring training. Sure, Casas was healthy then, and the team would’ve had to get creative with the reps, but it would’ve put them in a much easier situation to navigate than the one they’re currently in. Besides, sticking Devers at DH for the next decade never seemed like a great plan, anyway.
Instead, whether or not the organization intended to, they’ve alienated their franchise player, who feels like he’s being picked on by the front office. And if we’ve learned anything in sports, it’s that having a disgruntled superstar is not a recipe for long-term success.
The Red Sox have also put Cora in a tough position. The manager was able to smooth things out in the spring, but now he finds himself in the middle of the season with his team’s biggest superstar once again frustrated about what he sees as an unfair request.
What’s more, this whole kerfuffle has become a national story about the Red Sox’s highest paid player being unhappy. At a time when Boston is finally back to being baseball-relevant, just two games out from the top of the division, this is a huge distraction whether they call it that or not.
What did Rafael Devers get wrong?
Devers has always been a smiling, fun-loving player, and by all accounts, he’s a good teammate behind the scenes. That’s part of the reason the Red Sox made the investment in him that they did. But while Boston has made mistakes in handling this matter, so has the 28-year-old superstar.
Devers’ first mistake was his failure to recognize that circumstances change. Yes, when the team gave him $330 million, they gave it to him to be the third baseman. But that front office is no longer in charge, and if the new front office decides that it’s better for the team that Devers moves to a new position, then that’s what’s going to happen. It doesn’t mean he won’t get paid, and it doesn’t mean he’s not an important part of this team, but it does mean the Red Sox have a different philosophy than under the previous regime.
And once Casas hurt his knee, whatever previous plans the team had made were moot, because the roster construction has changed entirely — an outcome that was somewhat inevitable. First base is an area where Boston has little depth behind Casas. If their first baseman ever got injured, someone else was likely going to need to change positions, whether that was Devers or one of their highly touted prospects, such as Roman Anthony.
Devers’ second mistake was not realizing that the optics of this scenario are not in his favor, especially the longer it drags out. With his initial rejection of moving to DH after the team brought in a better defensive third baseman, Devers risked coming off as selfish, whether he meant to or not. And with the team asking if he’d change positions again out of necessity on the heels of Casas going down for the season, Devers’ emphatically declining could come off as not being a team player.
It’s refreshing to see a player be honest about how he feels about his circumstances. But honesty sometimes comes with repercussions.
Where do they go from here?
At the end of the day, the Red Sox have the right to ask their franchise player to change positions for the good of the team. And Devers, as that franchise player, has the right to say no and remind them he already moved positions. Not every player will be as flexible as Mookie Betts or Bryce Harper. Many players, like Devers, want to play where they feel comfortable. In Devers’ case, he clearly feels like he already tried to help the team by becoming a full-time designated hitter, which was not ideal for him in the first place.
Devers is the Red Sox’s longest-tenured player and an important presence in the clubhouse. It’s important to note that after the organization’s initial request for him to move off third, his teammates had his back, most notably Bregman and Casas.
“Here in the clubhouse, thankfully, the relationship that I have with my teammates is great,” Devers said Thursday.
Going forward, this situation is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. The Red Sox might very well try to smooth things over internally, but for the second time this season, it’s out in the open that their best player is unhappy, and now he’s calling out the front office publicly.
Getting through this — on the field and off — will be no easy fix for Devers and the Red Sox. But somehow, the two sides have to come together to make this right. Because if they can’t, this will continue to fester, and it won’t turn out well for anyone.
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