Article: Rafael Devers May Actually Play First Base, Eventually

[mvp 78]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Place your bets.

My bet is it'll all blow over.  

It all blows over and Devers plays 1B at some point down the road. 50/50 he plays this season. 

[mvp 78]

2 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Screw feelings, they are all getting paid well to be professionals .

Breslow and Cora are paid to manage players. To this point, they have not managed Devers or this situation well. That's on them, not Devers. Devers was told he was going to be the long term 3b. Then he's told to throw away his glove that he's going to be DH and won't play the field again. Now he's told he has to play 1b. That's how you treat Romy Gonzalez, not your franchise player Rafael Devers. 

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's the only sample there is.

For the season:

146 wRC+ (career high)

398 OBP (career high)

16.2 bb% (career high)

415 xWOBA (career high)

95.6 exit velo (career high)

18.8 barrel% (career high)

61.6 hard hit% (career high)

40.2 LA sweet spot% (career high)

22.1 out of zone swing% (career low)

He's been a better hitter as a DH than he has been as a 3b even including that first awful week. I think they should just keep him at DH and let him be a wreaking ball for the next how ever many seasons. 

 

[notin]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Breslow and Cora are paid to manage players. To this point, they have not managed Devers or this situation well. That's on them, not Devers. Devers was told he was going to be the long term 3b. Then he's told to throw away his glove that he's going to be DH and won't play the field again. Now he's told he has to play 1b. That's how you treat Romy Gonzalez, not your franchise player Rafael Devers. 

To be a little fair to Breslow and Cora, the decision to move Devers to first was due to an injury and not done on a whim.

And since Casas is likely due back in Boston at some point in his career, it’s likely just a temporary move…

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

For the season:

146 wRC+ (career high)

398 OBP (career high)

16.2 bb% (career high)

415 xWOBA (career high)

95.6 exit velo (career high)

18.8 barrel% (career high)

61.6 hard hit% (career high)

40.2 LA sweet spot% (career high)

22.1 out of zone swing% (career low)

He's been a better hitter as a DH than he has been as a 3b even including that first awful week. I think they should just keep him at DH and let him be a wreaking ball for the next how ever many seasons. 

 

Nope. With SS only 80 game sample sizes count.

He may never come back to this site, once Devers' hot streak reaches 80.

(We can hope, anyway... LOL)

[Old Red]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Breslow and Cora are paid to manage players. To this point, they have not managed Devers or this situation well. That's on them, not Devers. Devers was told he was going to be the long term 3b. Then he's told to throw away his glove that he's going to be DH and won't play the field again. Now he's told he has to play 1b. That's how you treat Romy Gonzalez, not your franchise player Rafael Devers. 

Well said, and agree 100%. I think JH didn’t just go to KC to speak to Raffy, but have a talk with Brez, and Cora also whom I think has a disagreement on if Raffy should try 1B, or not. This whole situation couldn’t have been handled worse than it has by the Red Sox IMO. If the thought was to kick the can down the road it appears they missed the can all together.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

To be a little fair to Breslow and Cora, the decision to move Devers to first was due to an injury and not done on a whim.

And since Casas is likely due back in Boston at some point in his career, it’s likely just a temporary move…

I just think the communication all along should have left the door open for the likelihood that he may eventually have to play 1B or 3B again. However, that seems like it was not how they approached it. They told Devers that he was done playing the field and he was the fulltime DH going forward no matter what. That's what Cora said. 

I wouldn't be so sure about Casas being back. His knee injury is pretty significant and he likely won't be on the Opening Day roster even if he stays on track for his rehab. Similar injuries have taken other players 14 months to come back from. Even then, he's not a guy who has bounced back and doesn't have a strong MLB track record TBH. 

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

To be a little fair to Breslow and Cora, the decision to move Devers to first was due to an injury and not done on a whim.

And since Casas is likely due back in Boston at some point in his career, it’s likely just a temporary move…

It far from being likely that Casas will play 1B for the Red Sox again, or moving Raffy to 1B if the move is actually done  just a temporary move.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I just think the communication all along should have left the door open for the likelihood that he may eventually have to play 1B or 3B again. However, that seems like it was not how they approached it. They told Devers that he was done playing the field and he was the fulltime DH going forward no matter what. That's what Cora said. 

I wouldn't be so sure about Casas being back. His knee injury is pretty significant and he likely won't be on the Opening Day roster even if he stays on track for his rehab. Similar injuries have taken other players 14 months to come back from. Even then, he's not a guy who has bounced back and doesn't have a strong MLB track record TBH. 

Once again I don’t think there was any communication about Raffy playing the field again, because that’s how Cora saw things, but Brez has other ideas, and that’s why Cora said he hadn’t spoken to Raffy about playing 1B, and wasn’t going to.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, notin said:

To be a little fair to Breslow and Cora, the decision to move Devers to first was due to an injury and not done on a whim.

This is important, and although they may have mishandled the move to DH, that was not really done on a whim, either. I'm sure Sox GMs discussed the weak defense at 3B for years, and thought of ways to fix the problem, but chose to let it go for another year.

Has the Bregman opportunity not come up, Devers would have played 3rd for another year, or at least until Mayer was called up.

The Yoshida injury helped make the decision an obvious one.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Well said, and agree 100%. I think JH didn’t just go to KC to speak to Raffy, but have a talk with Brez, and Cora also whom I think has a disagreement on if Raffy should try 1B, or not. This whole situation couldn’t have been handled worse than it has by the Red Sox IMO. If the thought was to kick the can down the road it appears they missed the can all together.

It also seems that Cora and Breslow are not on the same page.

Cora: wanted Bregman to be 2b

Breslow: didn't want Bregman, but relented and signed him to be 3b

I just wonder if there's underlying tension since Breslow has the job that Cora openly wanted, but was turned down for. Cora has been here longer, knows he has pull with ownership and just sees things in a certain way. Breslow is new to the job, trying to make his way and probably stepping on toes as he goes (maybe inadvertently). 

[mvp 78]

Just now, moonslav59 said:

This is important, and although they may have mishandled the move to DH, that was not really done on a whim, either. I'm sure Sox GMs discussed the weak defense at 3B for years, and thought of ways to fix the problem, but chose to let it go for another year.

Has the Bregman opportunity not come up, Devers would have played 3rd for another year, or at least until Mayer was called up.

The Yoshida injury helped make the decision an obvious one.

What injury? The one where Yoshida could still DH as much as he did last season, but not play the filed where he's absolutely horrible? Why would they want him in the field anyway? Seems like they also aren't treating Yoshida all that well. 

[notin]

15 minutes ago, Old Red said:

It far from being likely that Casas will play 1B for the Red Sox again, or moving Raffy to 1B if the move is actually done  just a temporary move.

Why is it “far from likely”?

Think the Sox non-tender him?  Or trade him?  He’s not exactly at his most marketable right now and they did try to extend him not too long ago…

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It also seems that Cora and Breslow are not on the same page.

Cora: wanted Bregman to be 2b

Breslow: didn't want Bregman, but relented and signed him to be 3b

I just wonder if there's underlying tension since Breslow has the job that Cora openly wanted, but was turned down for. Cora has been here longer, knows he has pull with ownership and just sees things in a certain way. Breslow is new to the job, trying to make his way and probably stepping on toes as he goes (maybe inadvertently). 

Talking about Bregman playing 2B didn’t help matters, and I agree that Cora wanted Bregman at 2B, but Brez wanted him at 3B. I think there not only tension between Cora, and Brez, but now even more so between Raffy, and Brez. I think it was also telling that Brez wasn’t in the meeting with JH, Sam, Cora, and Raffy.

[Jasonbay44]

5 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

It's just articles related to the thread topic.

It’s s***** articles. It’s like being too lazy to have an opinion or anything so you shared someone else’s opinion. What is the point? The article said a whole lot of nothing and was about as useful as buzzfeed articles written by a random blogger. 

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Why is it “far from likely”?

Think the Sox non-tender him?  Or trade him?  He’s not exactly at his most marketable right now and they did try to extend him not too long ago…

A lot has happened since they tried to extend Casas, and I think that ship has sailed, and won’t be coming back.

[Jasonbay44]

2 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Talking about Bregman playing 2B didn’t help matters, and I agree that Cora wanted Bregman at 2B, but Brez wanted him at 3B. I think there not only tension between Cora, and Brez, but now even more so between Raffy, and Brez. I think it was also telling that Brez wasn’t in the meeting with JH, Sam, Cora, and Raffy.

I just don’t get why all this stuff is in the media anyway. This could’ve easily been said or done behind closed doors and now it’s becoming almost a circus. 
 

At least it’s not impacting Devers hitting on the field 

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

What injury? The one where Yoshida could still DH as much as he did last season, but not play the filed where he's absolutely horrible? Why would they want him in the field anyway? Seems like they also aren't treating Yoshida all that well. 

Does seem strange that Yoshida is not DH'ing in AAA.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

Why is it “far from likely”?

Think the Sox non-tender him?  Or trade him?  He’s not exactly at his most marketable right now and they did try to extend him not too long ago…

I think Casas probably wishes he signed that extension!

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Does seem strange that Yoshida is not DH'ing in AAA.

Sox are doing whatever they can to keep him on the IL. 

ROSTER MANIPULATION

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, Jasonbay44 said:

I just don’t get why all this stuff is in the media anyway. This could’ve easily been said or done behind closed doors and now it’s becoming almost a circus. 
 

At least it’s not impacting Devers hitting on the field 

It's said in the media because Breslow didn't appropriately address it prior to Spring Training. If he had, Raffy would have had a better response to the reporters and this wouldn't be a story. 

[Old Red]

18 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

What injury? The one where Yoshida could still DH as much as he did last season, but not play the filed where he's absolutely horrible? Why would they want him in the field anyway? Seems like they also aren't treating Yoshida all that well. 

It’s a wink, wink that Masa isn’t playing, because he can’t throw. It’s nothing more than the old roster construction thing. Masa was well enough to DH in ST, and if Raffy wasn’t now taking the DH spot Masa would have opened the season as the DH. Not treating Masa that well at all, but at least he’s collecting his $18M.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, Old Red said:

A lot has happened since they tried to extend Casas, and I think that ship has sailed, and won’t be coming back.

Since then:

730 OPS

16 HR

11 2B

92 G

-0.3 bWAR

He'll have a lot of time to work on his tan. 😎

[mvp 78]

If the Sox started the season with:

Raffy 1B

Masa DH

The team would have been much better off this year. 

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox are doing whatever they can to keep him on the IL. 

ROSTER MANIPULATION

C&M. Construction, and Manipulation.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Since then:

730 OPS

16 HR

11 2B

92 G

-0.3 bWAR

He'll have a lot of time to work on his tan. 😎

And take more mental swings.

[notin]

37 minutes ago, Old Red said:

A lot has happened since they tried to extend Casas, and I think that ship has sailed, and won’t be coming back.

So you think he gets non-tendered?

Hes not tradable.  The market for arbitration eligible first basemen with 350 PA and a -0.3 bWAR over a two year stretch is not as robust as one imagines…

[moonslav59]

30 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox are doing whatever they can to keep him on the IL. 

ROSTER MANIPULATION

He's on the 40 and not the 60 Day IL.

He has options, so what is the manipulation? And what for?

[moonslav59]

34 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If the Sox started the season with:

Raffy 1B

Masa DH

The team would have been much better off this year. 

I think many felt Casas would hit better than Yoshida over a full 2025 season.

[Old Red]

23 minutes ago, notin said:

So you think he gets non-tendered?

Hes not tradable.  The market for arbitration eligible first basemen with 350 PA and a -0.3 bWAR over a two year stretch is not as robust as one imagines…

I think what has sailed is the long-term extension.