That very well may be true. Personally, I can't think anyone would think Casas is a better 1Bman than devers could be, but that is all speculation on my part. We do know Cora has had certain strong opinions on players and positions and is fiercely loyal to many players. He once called Kike one of the best defensive SSs in MLB. He resisted moving Bogey off SS, when we signed Story. I do think he did not want to upset Devers by moving him off 3B, but he ended up asking him to DH, so I can't help but raise an eyebrow over not just telling him it's 1B not DH. The fact that he apparently never even asked Devers to play 1B, let alone tell him to, supports your opinion.
It was strange that Cora initially floated the idea of Bregman at 2B and devers at 3B and even Bregman okay'd the idea, but he did move off that position- perhaps with a nudge from Brez. It looked like a "nudge" was not going to be enough to convince Cora to get Devers to try 1B. The whole situation was weird, to me. How often do you see a GM going to speak to a player s about a position move? Then , some reports said Brez never even asked him to play 1B; he just told him they'd like him to play there.
Seems like there were just too many unknowns to throw most of the blame on one guy. I know some say 50+% is on Devers, while some seem to think Cora is the main guy to blame. I'm not sure I need to know. I'm kinda glad we moved on, but only if we can add a mega bat to take his slot, and no, it's not Anthony. Anthony is the boost we need to improve- not the boost we needed to maybe stay even.