Who’s the Red Sox Third Baseman? It's Messy

So maybe you were busy on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a holiday, and maybe you just took Tuesday off from paying attention to spring training. That would be totally fine. Very little that truly matters is happening right now. However, if you love drama, then I’m so sorry for your loss, because the past two days were extremely weird and messy. Allow me to catch you up.

On Monday, the Red Sox had a meeting from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM. Then practice started. Around 12:30, Rafael Devers – simultaneously one of the league’s best overall third basemen and the league’s absolute worst third base defender – took questions from reporters alongside translator Daveson Perez. Let me hit you with some highlights:

“My position is third base.”

Asked Dan Shaughnessy, if the team asked Devers to DH, would he do it?

“No. I play third.”

What if they insisted?

“No.”

Devers then revealed that Craig Breslow and Alex Cora had met with him on Friday to broach the subject of moving to DH.

“They asked me the question about how I feel about DH, and yeah, I gave them the answer I just gave: ‘No.’”

What about first base?

“No.”

First of all, let’s give Devers credit for honesty. He wants to play third base. He believes he can hold the position down. He’s being direct and honest. Second, he said plenty of other, less grabby things. He said, “We all know that this team drafted me and I’ve been here my entire career and I am Boston Red Sox through and through….I’m open to listening and hearing what they have to say moving forward.” He also said that when he signed his 10-year deal in January 2023, it was to play third base: “That was definitely what was discussed when I signed, that I would be playing this position for a long time.” He went on, “I believe people’s word and I take it to heart, so it was very surprising that they would suggest that [moving to DH]. Since the beginning, I have known that this is a business and I’ve known that each side is going to do what’s comfortable to them. I don’t think that this is the right way to do business.”

For the most part, Alex Cora and Alex Bregman, the two other main characters, did their best to defuse the situation. Cora declined to comment on Devers’ comments on Monday. Then on Tuesday, he repeatedly touted the strength of his relationship with Devers. He told reporters that he’d invited both Bregman and Devers over to his house to chat for 45 minutes on Monday night. After batting practice, Devers and Bregman fist bumped in full view of the writers.

In the afternoon, Bregman offered reporters a grand bouquet of bland affirmations: “I’m super excited just to be his teammate. He’s a great player. I think everybody in this clubhouse is worried about winning….I’ll play wherever AC tells me to play.” He kept talking for quite a while, but you get the point. Bregman has never been the most genuine player when it comes to addressing the public, and he came out and said all the things you’d expect while dodging the question of where he thinks he should play. Masataka Yoshida, who would be the odd man out were Devers to move to DH, chimed in: “My job is to give it all my best, whatever my job calls for. If that is to DH or that is to play the outfield, I’m giving it my best.” It sounded like the drama was just about over.

Then things got hairy again. Speaking about Devers, Cora said, “He feels like he’s a third baseman.” This is an incredible quote. Cora could have just said that Devers is a third baseman. He would’ve been telling the truth. He could have just said the obvious, that Bregman is literally a reigning Gold Glover. Instead, he went with feels like. It’s a work of passive-aggressive artistry.

Cora didn’t stop there. When asked about the promises made to Devers, he got right to the heart of the matter, “Different people here, right? There’s a different leader here. Chaim [Bloom] is in St. Louis right now.” That’s not mincing words, and it’s not accidentally getting passive-aggressive. It’s saying very clearly that the Red Sox do not in any way feel bound by the promises they made to Devers. I don’t think that’s an indefensible argument, but I do think that Devers has every right to be hurt by it.

I have my own opinion about how the Red Sox should handle the situation and what the best infield configuration would look like. I’m sure you have yours too. We’re also working with incomplete information, because the injury component – when the shoulders of both Devers and Yoshida will be healthy enough for them to play at 100% – no doubt affects the team’s calculus, and that’s not public knowledge. However, Cora has now made it very clear that the team wants Bregman at third and Devers at DH. That means a couple things. It means Yoshida will either be playing in the outfield or not at all. It means that the team expects either Vaughn Grissom or Kristian Campbell to play second base and play it well. It means the team expects Trevor Story to stay healthy and perform at shortstop, which at this point would be a major surprise. This is purely speculation, but I think we have to at least entertain the possibility that the Red Sox never really considered playing Bregman at second base; that they always figured they’d find a way to move Devers off third.

So that’s where things stand as of Wednesday morning, but there’s also one more puzzle piece. So far, the collection of quotes I’ve shown you has been messy, but as is his wont, Triston Casas jumped into the fray and took the whole situation from drama to locker room farce. Visibly smirking, Casas told reporters: ““I think it’s Raffy Devers’s position. I think he’s the third baseman and at that point that’s where it stands. He’s done it for a really long time now and I think he’s only getting better at that position. I think his defense is getting better every single year.”

Casas continued, calling Devers, “the best third baseman in the league,” and saying that Bregman should play second base. “I think he’s going to make the transition well. I think he’s athletic enough to.”

This is very tricky situation. The Red Sox are bound to Devers for a very long time. Despite his glove, he’s still the best player on the team, and they have not yet figured out how to handle the situation without hurting him. Still, it's hard to imagine Devers staying at third base if Brelsow and Cora want him elsewhere. The situation might stay messy for a while. It will certainly be resolved one way or another by Opening Day. In the meantime, at least we get to enjoy Triston Casas.