Rafael Devers May Actually Play First Base, Eventually

3 hours ago, Jasonbay44 said:

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. 

I share my thoughts often, what are you babbling about?

I post the articles to help generate discussion, if you don't like them you can certainly skip them. Nobody is forcing you to read them.

4 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

You did Get me, but why would you want a guy with an 80 game OPS like that?

Because that's typically the type of guy available this time of year.

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Devers was told he was going to be the long term 3b. Any proof of that?

Then he's told to throw away his glove that he's going to be DH and won't play the field again. Any proof of that? 

1 hour ago, Maxbialystock said:

 He was also told before the Bregman trade that 3b was his forever.  

 

Got a link?

14 hours ago, notin said:

I’m sure the Athletics would love Abreu.  Ive suggested deals for Soderstrom involving him.  Casas? He’s just not good trade bait.  I mean, you tried to pass of his career bWAR of 2.0 in a season and a half worth of games as an accomplishment;  it’s not.  That’s utility infielder production.

I have doubts Oakland moves Kurtz, and other doubts about how useful he’ll really be in 2025 anyway.  
 

I could see moving Abreu, but I’d actually rather not.  He’s becoming a star player before us. And moving him to get Anthony in the lineup - while acceptable - might also be a step down.

The Sox should get a stopgap 1b.  No one is trading for Casas right now.  Like Casas or not, BTV gives him a surplus value of $0.  For comparison, Nick Kurtz has a surplus value of $44.1 million.  (And Abreu has a surplus value of $64.5million, suggesting  a straight up trade of Abreu for Kurtz is a MASSIVE overpay by Boston).

 

Casas will likely be offered arbitration next year and try again to be the starting 1b in Boston.  Kurtz will start in (Sacramento? Vegas?) for minimum wage for his current low budget team.  And Boston will explore the rental market for a stopgap 1b to fill out the year  Josh Bell? Wilmer Flores? Ty France? Mitch Garver?  Andrew Vaughn? Someone unexciting, but an upgrade nonetheless…

 

You and I have a different perspective on the state of the Red Sox team.  Boston isn't ready for any big playoff run.  There is a decent chance they won't make the playoffs if just about anything goes wrong related to injuries.  The ownership is shaky on whether they would repair any injuries versus send the GM to KMART to seek a player like a 1B.  If Crochet goes down, season over.  If Devers goes down season over.  So my perspective is more of optimism for the future.  That's why Kurtz makes sense because he's a better all around player than Soderstrom to play 1B and he creates a window for success along with many other players that could all gel during one 3 to 5 year stretch.  If you pass on Kurtz because he won't be much different than a healthy Casas or Mayer or Anthony from a hitting perspective that's fair but in 2026 he'll be much better and by 2027 he might be an all-star which can also be said for Campbell and Anthony.  

As we talk about the team today, Abreu is in one of his hot streaks.  He has enormous cold streaks as well so Duran, Rafaela and Anthony look like the future outfield to me despite Cora really liking Abreu.  The outfield depth that Boston has needs to be cashed in during an opportunity to trade and improve the future.  Abreu and Kurtz in a deal really makes the prospect of 2026 and beyond more exciting.  I have no idea how Oakland looks at Kurtz or Abreu so maybe it can't happen but a good GM should be able to find out and add the appropriate extra piece to get Kurtz.  Then all Boston will need is a catcher of the future since Teel is gone.  The first pick this year has 3 very capable catchers of the future so that need might be filled with their first pick.  The plugging of the holes at 1B and Catcher and the addition of Anthony in 2025 should make Boston a very exciting team in 2026 and beyond.  And if Mayer can figure out how to stay healthy and perform at his 2024 level not all the other previous years, Boston will have excellent infield and outfield depth in 2026.

15 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

The amount of injuries players have suffered from playing 1b is pretty small in the grand scheme of things.

And what ortiz did has no bearing on what devers may or may not do.

Why a round peg in a square hole especially after watching 8 seasons of butchery at 3B?  Why not simply find a 1B, maybe a 1B for the future so when Casas comes back all those that don't like him can watch him get packaged in a deal to get us something else we might need at that point in time.

Devers has been observed by Boston scouts, front office personnel, multiple managers and GMs over the 14 years since he was discovered in the Dominican Republic by one of Theo's scouts.  NEVER during that time has he been an adequate fielder.  He's been below league average his entire career.  Who suggests such a bad defender to take over a different position?  That's completely illogical.  Let the guy play DH and never look back on the 8 MLB seasons that he hurt the Red Sox by playing 3B.  

Heck, watch Bregman play 3B ONE DAY and you'll see how much better he is than Devers.  Being loyal to a player is great but you can't hurt the team so he can feel good about himself.  We did that for 8 seasons.  Think about the satisfaction the pitching staff must be feeling knowing that Bregman can catch all those balls Devers never even got his glove on, let alone the ones that bounced off the heel of his glove, his foot, his hand or got thrown past the 1B!!!

17 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Leading up to the signing, Cora kept saying that he wanted Bregman to be the 2b. They sign Bregman and he's brought in as a 3b. Cora clearly hadn't spoken to Devers about a position change. At the time of signing, Cora and Breslow need to get their heads together and come up with a communication plan for Devers. It seems like they never did. While I'm sure Breslow is a smart guy, he can be an absolute dumbass sometimes when it comes to communicating. Bloom was like that too. 

In my experience, the ultra smart analytical men from your Yale's, Oxford's, and the like, all have lower emotional intelligence. You can tell when you're in a room with a Bloom/Breslow quite quickly. Not that they're bad people or anything, just a little detached. Everyone has blind spots. 

17 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Umm, there's 8 pages that pretty much haven't added anything new. Why do you bother to continue to read and comment on this thread if that's the way you feel?

So what's your argument? That because posters in this thread are not always making up new suppositions that you're well within your rights to post articles that are put together by AI that offer exactly nothing? 

I mean, sure, knock yourself out. I can think of better ways to waste time.

15 hours ago, vegasbob said:

 

Raffy's ego got bruised when the Red Sox management cumulatively "told' him he wasn't good enough at 3rd base, and signed Bregman.  I always felt he  had a diva attitude but covered it with his strong hitting skills until the shoulder injuries August/Sept 2024.

Why have you always felt he's had a diva attitude? What has he done outside of this season? I can't think of one thing. I can remember all the times he's played hurt however. 

4 hours ago, Hitch said:

So what's your argument? That because posters in this thread are not always making up new suppositions that you're well within your rights to post articles that are put together by AI that offer exactly nothing? 

I mean, sure, knock yourself out. I can think of better ways to waste time.

AI? It was Bob Nightengale? Is he a robot?

18 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

AI? It was Bob Nightengale? Is he a robot?

Yeah, that article wasn't written by Bob Nightengale. 

This explains a lot. 

13 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

Why should he play 1b this season?  Since when is having the best DH in the AL a bad idea?  That's debatable, Rice has the higher OPS

Neither Ortiz or JDM was ever asked to play a field position full time.   Because he was a DH, Ortiz was still a terrific hitter at age 40, his final season (2016)--151 games and an OPS of 1.061.  What ortiz did at 40 has zero bearing on what devers does.

And why is everyone insisting that we need a great hitting firstbaseman when the injured Casas was having a horrible season?  Gonzalez is the answer for 1B.  It's that simple.  

And let's not forget that some combination of Cora and Breslow lied to Devers in spring training.  To me the amazing right now, Mon, May12,   is that playing Bregman at 3b and Devers at DH is working like gangbusters.  Bregman has been fantastic and now so is Devers.  Why oh why mess with success?  

I'll tell you why.  Bregman wants Yoshida to DH because otherwise he is unplayable and getting paid a lot of money. Why does bregman want yoshi to DH? What pisses me off is that management won't admit that and instead has done all it can to make Devers the bad guy.  

7 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Yeah, that article wasn't written by Bob Nightengale. 

This explains a lot. 

Who cares who wrote it? It was regarding quotes from Nightengale.

And if you hate AI articles, you're in for a rude awakening. I bet at least half of what you read has AI in it and that's only going to increase as time goes by.

12 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Moon is always so worried about how something is perceived. Bottom line Masa could be the DH in Boston right now, but he is not. Masa could have been the DH in Boston on opening day, but he was not. Masa could be the DH in Woo, or anywhere else right now, but he is not. You can call the why, and why not anything you want, but it still comes out to the same thing that Masa is in exile collecting his $18M.

Shades of rusney castillo.

39 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

moon, you have a long history of being willfully obtuse. We can point out stuff to you all day long and you'll just ignore it like all of the other times. 

Masa is as healthy as Raffy. Masa is in IL limbo because they just don't believe in him as a player and can't figure out what to do with him. It's the most passive aggressive thing the Sox have done in a long time. "Well, I didn't sign him, so just send him to WOO to rehab or whatever."

I'm not sure that's strictly true. This was Masa's comments 6 days ago - I think there is genuine issue there. 

"When I stretch out to 120 feet, that’s when I kind of feel the pain,” Yoshida said. “I’m going to have to let it sit and see how I feel...That’s something that I kind of have to be dealing with throughout the year. At least this year I will have to deal with the pain...

"As far as the hitting, no problem...“But I’m not recovering or making the progress at the pace that I wanted to. Let’s put it that way.”