Article: Rafael Devers May Actually Play First Base, Eventually

[jdc69]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Red and Devers sounds like a basketball players/fans who refused to embrace the rising importance of the three point shot.  

Things change, and things evolve.  There are very few "real first baseman" left, almost all of them are dudes who were moved from a different position.  Its not just 1B either. Bregman came up a shortstop.  But he bulked up and had to be moved to third where he became really good.  The best defensive CF in baseball was a catcher 2 years ago.  Tatis was a SS.  It goes back even to the year 2000 , anyone remember when Alex Gordon was a 3B , got moved to RF and became freaking excellent? 

Long gone are the days where guys played one position their whole career.  Adapt or get left behind.  The seventies arent coming back. Foot stomping and whining for a "first baseman" is not only a bad look, but its also delusional.  Any 1B we could reasonably acquire is a guy who has been moved from a previous position. Thats what 1b has become, your bat is too good, but I already have a DH and you arent exactly getting it done at position x.

Refusing to adapt makes one go extinct.  Everybody I know who is over 65 and still working has had to adapt. The only thing that wont change is the fact that change exists.

Assuming it's stubbornness on his part and not dishonesty by the front office.

[win red sox]

28 minutes ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Bloom was on his way out and he didn't care if he lied to Devers since he was trying to save his job but instead created an albatross contract.  Devers should NEVER have played 3B once he proved his horrendous play in the minors wasn't going to improve.  This is a team that dismissed their greatest player Mookie to keep the player who was declared their future at 14.  Nothing that was done after 2019 made sense from a baseball ownership perspective if the organization wanted to win.  The wealthy ownership chose to not pay Mookie for 12 years at a price $9Million higher than his 2020 salary so they could overpay a DH who was nowhere near as good of a hitter as Mookie PLUS he couldn't play defense and could not run the bases as well.   Devers should have just taken the money, recognized how incredibly lucky he was and how patient the front office had been. He also needed to recognize that he was a pretender as a fielder and someday it would end despite ANY promises made by Bloom who was on his way out.  Now, maybe Devers realizes how incredibly bad he was at 3B after watching Bregman and doesn't want to embarrass himself any further.  That would be the most mature thinking he's ever done.

Go get a 1B using the outfield depth or trade Mayer since he carries significant risk to injury.  His value should be high enough to get a real long-term solution at 1B especially with throw ins like Yoshida and Abreu who have no place in Boston's future other than being back-ups.

Bregman has not be good defensively this year.

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

16 minutes ago, win red sox said:

Bregman has not be good defensively this year.

Yeah but a lot of those throwing errors would have been picked by a competent first baseman.  

[moonslav59]

I mean, AGon played RF, when they asked. Come on, guys!

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Bloom was on his way out and he didn't care if he lied to Devers since he was trying to save his job but instead created an albatross contract.  future other than being back-ups.

It's not a lie, unless the statement was purposely said, knowing it was wrong.

Maybe, Bloom really planned on playing Devers at 3B for 4, 5, 6 or even more years.

I think Brez intended Devers to never pick up a glove, this year, but why not learn from Bloom's boo-boo?

[Larry Cook]

Really think Devers should focus on hitting and being the next full time DH! 

[Old Red]

27 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's not a lie, unless the statement was purposely said, knowing it was wrong.

Maybe, Bloom really planned on playing Devers at 3B for 4, 5, 6 or even more years.

I think Brez intended Devers to never pick up a glove, this year, but why not learn from Bloom's boo-boo?

You can word, or phrase things anyway you want, but Raffy was told by the Boston Red Sox that he would be for the foreseeable future the 3B. I don’t think the Red Sox would have paid Raffy $300M+ as a 1B let alone a DH. Like Gasper said today there is plenty of blame to go around in this Raffy saga, and coulda, and shoulda been handled better by the Red Sox.  Also the biggest reason Raffy was given the contract was, because as I have said many times before Raffy was the last man standing after Bogey, and especially Mookie did not get resigned. I find it interesting that Cora said he hadn’t talked to Raffy about moving to 1B, and wasn’t going to, but Brez has. Maybe Cora doesn’t want to move Raffy again, and this is Brez idea. Like Gasper said also if the Red Sox aren’t going to go out, and get a real 1B then just put one of the suspects there. Why should an established player like Raffy have to move. Campbell doesn’t have an established position anyway, and Anthony is not as good as the 3 outfielders the Red Sox have now on D. Brez is the one who signed the RAF Man to a long term contract, and not the kind you give a utility player.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

6 hours ago, iortiz said:

Wonder what exactly his contract says. 
 

if the contract says, you will play wherever your manager tells you to play, why they bother asking him. You just tell him to play 1B and end of the story. 
 

Devers is still a young man. IMO he’s been terrible advised. Terrible. He sucked at 3B reason why they brought Bregman in the first place. Now an opportunity to play 1B is open and he refuses to at least try and help the team while a slot at DH would be open to Yoshida or one of our youngsters. 
 

I like Devers but this diva attitude speaks volumes how resentful he still is. 

Similar to Nomar in 2004.

[FredLynn]

6 hours ago, Hitch said:

They did lie to him - they kept parroting the nonsense that Bregman was destined for 2nd base. Even after he signed. 

Which of course, doesn't change that Devers is coming out of this looking terribly now.

The best defensive infield has Bregman at 3B. Raffy Diva should keep in mind that he isn’t running the show. He should be willing to play his best wherever they put him whenever they want to put him there. Maybe the promised him 3B with Bregman at 2nd. Too bad. Things change. I remember when I was still working and the organization decided that there was a shortage at another facility that was farther away from my home. My choices were to relocate or find another job.

Diva should be given the same choice.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

If Manny had ever been asked to play 1st, he would have responded " Sorry, I can't. My grandma just died."

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

57 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Really think Devers should focus on hitting and being the next full time DH! 

As a DH Devers has yet to make an error.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 minute ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

As a DH Devers has yet to make an error.

Except when he opens his mouth.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

It all goes back to what's best for the club and anyone who thinks Devers could play 1B must not have been around for the last 8 seasons watching him butcher 3B.  Devers IS NOT the answer or what's best for the ball club.  Two key issues - 1 ) the 1B is a power hitter position and Anthony is a power hitter so internally he's the best choice and externally there are several teams with good power depth at 1B that we could trade for.

2) The last thing anyone that loves the Red Sox would want is to see Devers hurt significantly.  At 1B his injury risk skyrockets.  Forget about the fact that he has no defensive skills, focus on what a devastating injury at 1B would do to the team and who would be the scapegoat for moving him there?  Cora says absolutely don't put him there and Breslow suggested to move him there.  This may be the one time that Cora makes the most sense of anyone.  He knows they can't lose his bat by risking his health at 1B.

[harmony]

At Baseball Trade Values, Rafael Devers' value has dropped from a surplus of $23.2 millon on February 17, to a negative $15.5 million on April 1, to a negative $64.7 million on Friday.

The current situation has diminished Devers' trade value, leaving the Red Sox in a tough spot.

[Deja Doh]

I'd prefer we would trade for a first baseman.  We should look at getting someone like Nathaniel Lowe from the Nationals.  His career OBP is 0.355.  That's what we need, someone to get on base.  

[notin]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

You can word, or phrase things anyway you want, but Raffy was told by the Boston Red Sox that he would be for the foreseeable future the 3B. I don’t think the Red Sox would have paid Raffy $300M+ as a 1B let alone a DH. Like Gasper said today there is plenty of blame to go around in this Raffy saga, and coulda, and shoulda been handled better by the Red Sox.  Also the biggest reason Raffy was given the contract was, because as I have said many times before Raffy was the last man standing after Bogey, and especially Mookie did not get resigned. I find it interesting that Cora said he hadn’t talked to Raffy about moving to 1B, and wasn’t going to, but Brez has. Maybe Cora doesn’t want to move Raffy again, and this is Brez idea. Like Gasper said also if the Red Sox aren’t going to go out, and get a real 1B then just put one of the suspects there. Why should an established player like Raffy have to move. Campbell doesn’t have an established position anyway, and Anthony is not as good as the 3 outfielders the Red Sox have now on D. Brez is the one who signed the RAF Man to a long term contract, and not the kind you give a utility player.

1.  What does “foreseeable future” mean?

2. So that promise exempts him from temporary moves?

The Sox didn’t get a “real first baseman” because in today’s age of 8 man bullpens, you simply cannot put eight MLB caliber starting players on your bench.

 

And Breslow didn’t sign Devers. Bloom did.  Breslow was hired 8 months later….

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

36 minutes ago, harmony said:

At Baseball Trade Values, Rafael Devers' value has dropped from a surplus of $23.2 millon on February 17, to a negative $15.5 million on April 1, to a negative $64.7 million on Friday.

The current situation has diminished Devers' trade value, leaving the Red Sox in a tough spot.

We Sox fans are used to that.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Old Red said:

You can word, or phrase things anyway you want...

It's not "phrasing" anything. I'm defining what "lie" means to those who may not know.

The only other meaning is to rest in a horizontal position. Is that the meaning you intended?

[illinoisredsox]

1 hour ago, Deja Doh said:

I'd prefer we would trade for a first baseman.  We should look at getting someone like Nathaniel Lowe from the Nationals.  His career OBP is 0.355.  That's what we need, someone to get on base.  

Nobody is going to trade anyone right now, and the Sox are trading from a position of weakness, making any deal that much more expensive.even if it was more towards trading season.

[moonslav59]

55 minutes ago, notin said:

1.  What does “foreseeable future” mean?

Asking Red to define a word... GOOD ONE!

LMAO!

[moonslav59]

Just now, illinoisredsox said:

Nobody is going to trade anyone right now, and the Sox are trading from a position of weakness, making any deal that much more expensive.even if it was more towards trading season.

Indeed.

MLB.com just predicted the A's to win the ALW, so anybody and everybody has a shot in May.

[notin]

12 hours ago, Old Red said:

DFA Raffy then if he’s such a bad teammate and a detriment to the team. I don’t think he is being a bad teammate at all.

So Devers gets the “not a bad teammate” vote from someone who’s not actually a teammate.  Know who disagrees with you? His teammates.

 

https://nypost.com/2025/05/09/sports/red-sox-teammates-reactions-revealed-as-rafael-devers-wages-war-against-front-office/

 

Devers got promised third base.  And during two years, he lost the job by being the worst defensive third baseman in MLB.  Everyone who was worse (aka Jake Burger) was moved off the position.  If Devers could actually play third, he’d still be there…

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, notin said:

Devers got promised third base.  And during two years, he lost the job by being the worst defensive third baseman in MLB.  Everyone who was worse (aka Jake Burger) was moved off the position.  If Devers could actually play third, he’d still be there…

Playing the worst defense at your position is not being a good teammate, either... LOL.

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, notin said:

1.  What does “foreseeable future” mean?

2. So that promise exempts him from temporary moves?

The Sox didn’t get a “real first baseman” because in today’s age of 8 man bullpens, you simply cannot put eight MLB caliber starting players on your bench.

 

And Breslow didn’t sign Devers. Bloom did.  Breslow was hired 8 months later….

I should have posted how it was actually said, and used long term instead of foreseeable future, so signing a 10 year contract I would say long term would be at Least 5 years if not longer. Once again as far as Raffy was concerned when he signed that contract the promise was made by the Boston Red Sox, and it doesn’t matter if it was Sam, Cora, Bloom, Brez, or JH himself, and if they are still with the Red Sox.

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Asking Red to define a word... GOOD ONE!

LMAO!

Like I said before Cora said before Raffy spoke up yesterday that he hadn’t talked to Raffy about playing 1B, and wasn’t going too, but Brez did, which leads me to believe that Cora, and Brez may have a different opinion about if Raffy Should try, and play 1B, or not. If Cora thought Raffy should try 1B I think he would have a better chance of convincing Raffy than Brez would IMO.🙈

[harmony]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Indeed.

MLB.com just predicted the A's to win the ALW, so anybody and everybody has a shot in May.

From MLB.com:

Quote

 

You can't predict baseball. But, if you're going to try, why not go big?

That's why we asked six writers from MLB.com and Yahoo Sports to each dig deep and come up with one bold prediction for the rest of this season. Are these predictions that are likely to come to fruition? No, probably not. But if any of them do, you can say you read about them here first.

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/bold-predictions-for-the-rest-of-2025?partnerId=it-20250509-13479409-mlb-1-A&utm_id=it-20250509-13479409-mlb-1-A&lctg=7948633

😉

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Playing the worst defense at your position is not being a good teammate, either... LOL.

Playing bad D at your position makes you a bad teammate? Wow! The Red Sox must of had a lot of bad teammates the last two years, because the team has had 100+ errors, and pretty much led all of MLB in that category. No wonder they have played 500, or mostly below baseball the past 3 years, because they have had to many bad teammates making to many errors, so that explains it all   LOL.🙈

 

 

🤭

[Hugh2]

I saw a woman who speaks Spanish give a slightly different interpretation of the Devers interview during a chat with Kevin Millar on Intentional Talk, and of course I had my sons mother look at it to for me.  She translates Spanish to English for a living.  She agreed with her. 

effectively Devers said he doesn’t think he’s the kind of person who can just move from position to position.  He doesn’t like being jerked around but he also said “but if they tell me to play another position I think im going to do a good job”

he sounds like he doesn’t want to move, but he will if they make him. 
 

if that is a more accurate translation, then I think once again this thing is being blown out of proportion.  And I have to ask, why aren’t they making him? It’s clearly the best move. AND NO the fact that he wasn’t good at 3B doesn’t mean he will suck at 1b.  All the things he stunk at over at 3rd wont matter at 1b. 
 

I do like how John Henry personally flew out to KC to talk with Devers.  Devers is going to move to 1B eventually.  

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

I saw a woman who speaks Spanish give a slightly different interpretation of the Devers interview during a chat with Kevin Millar on Intentional Talk, and of course I had my sons mother look at it to for me.  She translates Spanish to English for a living.  She agreed with her. 

effectively Devers said he doesn’t think he’s the kind of person who can just move from position to position.  He doesn’t like being jerked around but he also said “but if they tell me to play another position I think im going to do a good job”

he sounds like he doesn’t want to move, but he will if they make him. 
 

if that is a more accurate translation, then I think once again this thing is being blown out of proportion.  And I have to ask, why aren’t they making him? It’s clearly the best move. AND NO the fact that he wasn’t good at 3B doesn’t mean he will suck at 1b.  All the things he stunk at over at 3rd wont matter at 1b. 
 

I do like how John Henry personally flew out to KC to talk with Devers.  Devers is going to move to 1B eventually.  

I don’t know about that chat, but what caused the latest bru ha ha was what Raffy said after the game Thursday. The interpreter who was with Raffy at the interview works for the Red Sox, and after listening to a guest on BST Thursday night said who interpreted it said the interpreter cleaned up what Raffy said a bit. The fact that Cora hadn’t spoken to  Raffy about playing 1B, and said he wasn’t going to leads me to believe Cora, and Brez have a different opinion on if Raffy should try to play 1B, or not, and that’s why the move hasn’t been made. Sam, and JH might not of just flown out to KC just to see Raffy, but get between Brez, and Cora as well. A full blown, self inflicted mess.🤫

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

It's not a question of if, but when. Devers will play first base and the Red Sox will promote actual hitters to the majors.

Raffy may look clunky at 1B, but who doesn't among Toro, Romy and even Casas? Schwarber did, too, in 2021 -- but getting his bat in the line-up, and keeping JD Martinez at DH almost won a pennant.

The key is to boost the offense, which is just inadequate. Boston, 4-10 in one-run losses, leads the league in one-run losses, tied with the other Sox (the worst team in the history of last year).

Luckily, in the especially-inept AL East, no club is over .500 in one-run games. This division is available... BTW: the two best are KC and Cleveland, both at 8-2.

And don't worry about splits for Mayer or Anthony. Marcelo is batting .256 vs. lefties. Roman is hitting .363. Compare that to Duran .220, Abreu .188, or Rafaela .179 (a RHH) vs. southpaws. Or Story .218 vs. righties (83% of his ABs).

They'll be alright.