Article: Rafael Devers Doesn't Have To Be Vocal To Be A Team Leader

[Alex Mayes]

Not all leaders approach the game the same way.

Ever since the reports came out Tuesday night that Rafael Devers spent 40 minutes sitting and staring at his locker, still in uniform, bat in hand, there’s been a conversation surrounding his role as the team's "leader" on and off the field. People are demanding that he be held accountable for not meeting with the media to discuss his own struggles at the plate and the struggles the team is currently facing. There are reports that even the organization is unhappy with his decision not to speak to the media. However, just because Devers is the highest-paid and best player on the roster does not mean he should be considered the vocal leader off the field. 

It was assumed that when Xander Bogaerts departed from free agency, his best friend on the team, Devers, would slide into his role as the vocal leader solely because of their relationship. Xander was always willing to speak to the media and had cultivated a positive relationship with them. He was also comfortable speaking to the media in English. Giving interviews and answering questions in English is not something Rafael Devers is comfortable doing. Raffy speaks English fairly comfortably, but when it comes to being on record, he prefers to use one of the translators employed by the team to ensure his thoughts are communicated clearly and correctly. Even still, we know that translators often have to make quick word substitutions, so their answers may not be the word-for-word thing they were initially told. 

To boot, the best player on the team has rarely been the face of the team with the media. When Mookie Betts was still here, who would the media speak to most often? Xander Bogaerts. While Xander was one of the top guys on the team, the expectation of Mookie being the one to face reporters often wasn’t there. Sure, Mookie speaks more than Raffy does, but that’s why people notice when Raffy does speak. Specifically, he sat down in February during Spring Training and said, “Everybody knows what we need. You know what we need. They know what we need.” We took notice specifically because that was not the standard Raffy response. Do we wish he would do that a bit more? Maybe. Should we demand him to? No. 

Rafael Devers was paid for two reasons. He hits, and he is a leader on the field. He posts almost every game. He plays through injury unless Alex Cora forces him to sit, but he is probably available off the bench in the right situation. As fans, we want to hear from our franchise’s stars, but not every star leads in the same way. Devers leads on the field, and that is all we need him to do. 

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[Bryce Whitlow]

Fantastic article! 

[Bellhorn04]

I have to push back a little.  Raffy's behavior after that game was not good.  He made the writers wait around an hour thinking he would finally say a few words, but he left without saying anything.  And of course it becomes a negative story.  He has to do better.

[moonslav59]

I cut him some slack.

You can tell this losing stretch is killing him. It's hard to be perfect.

[mvp 78]

Manny was paid a truckload of money and it was never expected that he was a team leader or someone the media was going to rely on for quotes. Raffy had never been that guy before. I have no idea with Cotillo and others are whining about it now. To me, it's just a media driven thing about something that doesn't really matter. I care about what happens on the field, not about what happens between players and beat guys. If Raffy is a good teammate, great! If Raffy isn't good at talking to the media, it doesn't matter at all!

That the media had to wait one whole hour? OMG! Can you imagine?!?!? One whole hour!!! I've waited longer for delivery pizza before. I've waited far longer for stuff as an auditor while sitting at the client. C'mon. An hour is nothing. Being put out about an hour is embarrassing. It used to be longer to wait for a table at the Cheesecake Factory at the Cambridgeside Galleria. 

[moonslav59]

Like the media couldn't talk to anyone else during that hour?

[Old Red]

Devers for Ever some days, and Never Devers other days, and that’s what he will always be as long as he’s in Boston.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Raffy's main problem is that his words are just not repeatable, especially under the tense scrutiny of postgame media hounds.

According to millimetrics, his rate of RTR (replies to reporters) will always be lower than his RTNH (replies to NESN homies).

He's really just goofing on all of them, eschewing a mixture of English and Spanish amidst garbled responses of bubblegum, sunflower seeds, and a clever translator in on the act...

[Bellhorn04]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Manny was paid a truckload of money and it was never expected that he was a team leader or someone the media was going to rely on for quotes. Raffy had never been that guy before. I have no idea with Cotillo and others are whining about it now. To me, it's just a media driven thing about something that doesn't really matter. I care about what happens on the field, not about what happens between players and beat guys. If Raffy is a good teammate, great! If Raffy isn't good at talking to the media, it doesn't matter at all!

That the media had to wait one whole hour? OMG! Can you imagine?!?!? One whole hour!!! I've waited longer for delivery pizza before. I've waited far longer for stuff as an auditor while sitting at the client. C'mon. An hour is nothing. Being put out about an hour is embarrassing. It used to be longer to wait for a table at the Cheesecake Factory at the Cambridgeside Galleria. 

I really don't care about it that much.  But what happened in this case was more like waiting an hour for your table, then being told there is no table, and there never was a table, so go home.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I really don't care about it that much.  But what happened in this case was more like waiting an hour for your table, then being told there is no table, and there never was a table, so go home.

Who said that Devers was going to talk to the media? How often does Devers even talk to the media? I don't think I even remember any memorable quotes from him. 

It just seems like such a made up scenario to be mad about. 

Devers is hurt and struggling and they just had a tough loss in a bad series. What were they expecting out of an interview? 

[Bellhorn04]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Who said that Devers was going to talk to the media? How often does Devers even talk to the media? I don't think I even remember any memorable quotes from him. 

It just seems like such a made up scenario to be mad about. 

Devers is hurt and struggling and they just had a tough loss in a bad series. What were they expecting out of an interview? 

He could say a few words just to be polite.  Like I say, I don't care it about that much.   There are some murmurs in the blogosphere that the front office is getting a little displeased about it.  

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

He could say a few words just to be polite.  Like I say, I don't care it about that much.   There are some murmurs in the blogosphere that the front office is getting a little displeased about it.  

He's never been that guy before. Why would it change now? It's just bad expectations IMO. 

They can be mad, but they spent 300M on a guy that hasn't been known to talk to the media and/or isn't good at it. Unless they are going to work on it with him, being passive aggressive is only going to make the situation untenable. Another swing and miss by ownership if this is the direction they are going. Blame every but themselves and don't put people in the best position to succeed. 

[Old Red]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Manny was paid a truckload of money and it was never expected that he was a team leader or someone the media was going to rely on for quotes. Raffy had never been that guy before. I have no idea with Cotillo and others are whining about it now. To me, it's just a media driven thing about something that doesn't really matter. I care about what happens on the field, not about what happens between players and beat guys. If Raffy is a good teammate, great! If Raffy isn't good at talking to the media, it doesn't matter at all!

That the media had to wait one whole hour? OMG! Can you imagine?!?!? One whole hour!!! I've waited longer for delivery pizza before. I've waited far longer for stuff as an auditor while sitting at the client. C'mon. An hour is nothing. Being put out about an hour is embarrassing. It used to be longer to wait for a table at the Cheesecake Factory at the Cambridgeside Galleria. 

Manny was paid plenty of money, and he was never expected to play chummy with the media, but there were plenty of other guys around to do that unlike now with Raffy, or unlike when Bogey was here who did the talking. Poor Raffy, but right now he’s the face of the franchise whether that face is spitting out seeds, chawing tobacco, or whether he’s hitting HR, or striking out with the bases loaded. 

[Jasonbay44]

Is talking to the media even required in baseball? I know there is pretty strict rules requiring media seasons in NFL and NBA, but I wasn’t aware of anything like that in MLB.

Devers has previously implied he doesn’t like talking to the media and part of it is due to him lacking confidence in his English. He can speak English fine but I think he has the worry that a lot of guys have when speaking a second language, their words being misconstrued or taken the wrong way. I know Ohtani has spoken about this previously. 
 

This is a non story for me. If he doesn’t want to talk to the media, don’t. It doesn’t mean he isn’t a good leader or clubhouse guy. 

[Bellhorn04]

I think the one criticism that stands is this: if you're not going to talk to the writers, don't make them wait around for an hour to find out.  That's just common courtesy.  They're only doing their jobs. 

[Jasonbay44]

52 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I think the one criticism that stands is this: if you're not going to talk to the writers, don't make them wait around for an hour to find out.  That's just common courtesy.  They're only doing their jobs. 

Did he ever tell them or imply he was going to talk to the media Sunday? 

[Bellhorn04]

5 minutes ago, Jasonbay44 said:

Did he ever tell them or imply he was going to talk to the media Sunday? 

I don't think he said anything, but he was aware they were there waiting for him.

He didn't break any rules.  But it's not a great look and kind of draws unwanted attention.  And it is hard to overlook that it's a guy making over $30 million a year.  All IMHO.

 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I don't think he said anything, but he was aware they were there waiting for him.

He didn't break any rules.  But it's not a great look and kind of draws unwanted attention.  And it is hard to overlook that it's a guy making over $30 million a year.  All IMHO.

 

The problem is that Christopher Smith assumed that he was waiting an hour for Devers to speak to the media. He didn't communicate with anyone about it. Smith was just sitting there getting more and more annoyed and then was probably more upset when he got home and was too tired to help with his young kids in the morning the next day (obviously I'm reading into it a little and making assumptions based on what I now about him). Just poor communication on Smith's part IMO. 

Devers has never been that guy so I don't know why he needs to be all of a sudden. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

This isn't to defend young millionaires, but to hammer pro sports organizations like Boston's, who somehow can't teach employees that the media is an integral part of their industry.

Reporters should not be considered the enemy, but can be a player's best friends -- and might even help some get set for life.

[Old Red]

53 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The problem is that Christopher Smith assumed that he was waiting an hour for Devers to speak to the media. He didn't communicate with anyone about it. Smith was just sitting there getting more and more annoyed and then was probably more upset when he got home and was too tired to help with his young kids in the morning the next day (obviously I'm reading into it a little and making assumptions based on what I now about him). Just poor communication on Smith's part IMO. 

Devers has never been that guy so I don't know why he needs to be all of a sudden. 

Personally I don’t care if he ever speaks to the media, but to question why Raffy needs to be THAT guy now, which really isn’t all of a sudden is, because now he is the face of the franchise. Bogey was that guy, but he’s gone, and now like it, or not Raffy is that guy. That’s his choice on whether he talks to the media, or not, but to only do it when he, or the team is going good is not a good look. He has sulked at 3B before when the rest of the IF was meeting on the mound, which wasn’t a good look either.

[dgalehouse]

Somebody dropped the ball there, whether it was Devers or someone else. You should not keep people waiting for an hour for an interview that is not going to happen. 

[Maxbialystock]

On 9/9/2024 at 8:27 AM, moonslav59 said:

I cut him some slack.

You can tell this losing stretch is killing him. It's hard to be perfect.

I'm with you.  And with Devers.