Hugh2

So Old Red appears to be right, I shall refer to him as the king of Sox talk for a week. https://www.mlb.com/news/rafael-devers-unwilling-to-play-first-base-for-red-sox Still, something stinks about this whole thing. Here is what Raffy said "In Spring Training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove and I wasn't going to play any other position but DH." - Raffy Cora is now on tape officially calling that "********" - Cora And Raffy also says "they" talked to me, he didn't say he "It was after the Casas [injury]. ... They came to me and talked to me about it," Devers said. - Raffy I still have questions, people lie or leave information out. Who is the "they" who talked to Raffy with Breslow? could it have been Breslow and Cora because Raffy said no to Cora? Was it Breslow and someone else because Cora wouldn't do it? Thats a whole cluster f*** of insubordination. Because there is no way Breslow should be doing Alex Coras job like that. I still don't buy....but a promise is a promise. So all hail Old Red King of Talksox.

Well documented? well then.........provide documentation.

It wasn't the plan for Cora to ask him to play 1B? or it wasn't the plan for the bench coach to ask him to play 1B? I mean we now for a fact, because the words literally came out of his mouth that Cora has said it was ******** that Devers was ever asked to put his glove away. We know it wasn't the plan for him to play 1B, that's obvious, no one has ever debated that. Plans change, OLD RED seems to think Alex Cora would never ask him to play 1B. I'm asking, if not the manager......then who?

If it was the teams plan to move Devers to 1B and Cora refused to have that conversation with him then he should of been fired MUCH longer ago. Your feelings and love for Cora doesn't make things reality. I mean......who the heck do you think asked him then? the bench coach?

He's literally the manager. If they were asking him to play first base he was the one who asked him. Thats like.....obvious. I'm not sure what your work experience is, maybe you're used to managers who cower in fear and don't have the conversations that upper management asked them to make but I don't think Cora is that guy, I don't think you think he's that guy either. Whether or not he agreed with it is something entirely different. It does appear there was a communications break down. But no one ever told Devers he was moving full time to DH, and those words came DIRECTLY out of Coras mouth. He recently gave an interview in spanish. Heres some of it: Alex Cora Breaks Silence on Rafael Devers Departure: ‘We Failed on Communication’ Former Red Sox manager Alex Cora addressed the departure of Rafael Devers, admitting the organization could have handled the situation much better. “It’s one of those situations where, as a group, we could’ve done a much better job communicating,” Cora said. “We should’ve sat him down and laid it out clearly: This is the situation, these are the directions we’re exploring. We don’t see you as our third baseman of the future. That’s it.” Cora emphasized that no one told Devers to throw his glove away, calling that part “********.” However, he acknowledged that everything changed after the team signed Alex Bregman and Triston Casas got hurt. “Looking back, I know we should’ve been upfront with him from the start of the offseason,” Cora continued. “We needed to have those real conversations. Those talks never happened.”

That's just the same argument over and over again. So the Sox should of just left him there because you don't do that to a guy midseason....unless you get traded and the new team asks. Imagine dating a girl who says she won't go to 2nd base with you then she starts dating your friend and they go 2nd base on the first date. you're going to be like....wtf? SF didn't need him taking reps at 1B in spring training and he moved over....and he didn't complain about it then.

Excellent Bowler, I heard he can bowl a 300 easy.

But that's the whole point. Casas went down. Are they supposed to ask every player if they'd be willing to play every position incase every play on any team gets hurt? That's my whole point. It was logical to ask the big bat who everyone thought would end up at 1B one day to go over to 1B when your firstbaseman went down. It's one thing for him to say no but to act like they comitted some crime against humanity by just asking him was absurd.

Lets start talking about Mookie Betts

I could see that. I'm sure there's plenty of blame pie to go around but there was certainly permutations of the future (or past now I suppose) where Devers didn't get traded because he didn't act like a complete jackyll because of the whole thing. sometimes when we get into these arguments we find ourselves slowly painting ourselves into a corner making a point we weren't originally over concerned with. I never really cared too too much that Raffy didn't want to play 1st; I thought it was the opposite of selfless and he kind of handle childlike but it didn't bother me so much. What got me going, was when s*** hit the fan people seemed overaly critical of the Sox even asking him to play 1B.....Like why wouldn't they ask him to? so dumb.

Oh have we now? So Raffy can't play 1B in Boston because Abraham Toro is an option and somehow Raffy at 1B bad bad bad....but then he goes to SF and somehow magically (and conveniently for your point) the calculus changes? I don't buy it. Raffy was stubborn and didn't want to do what was best for the team. Pretty clear cut and dry if you ask me.

So.....why is Devers playing 1B in San Francisco???

Casas certainly has every right to play his ass off and come back strong. But I don't think anyone on earth is counting on him anymore. If he ever does it will be a nice story, but he's fallen out of the planning discussion.

My point is plans change and you adjust on the fly. When injuries rack up, you can't go with your plan A. I don't blame Devers for not wanting to play 1B but I look at it like this. If I do job xyz at work, and the guy who does abc gets injured and they ask me to do his job for a few weeks I don't get as insulted as I would have if they asked me for zero reason. I would make the move under those circumstances, because I'm a team player. They didn't ask Devers to move to 1B to just f*** with him, they had a plethora of injuries last year and they were trying to optimize the lineup because the point of baseball is to win games. Rafael showed us he is not a team player last year. When you're the highest paid guy on a team....thats' a very bad look. It's also easy to say Cora implented his own plan when he didn't have Devers on the roster. Anyone would have a plan that didn't involve Devers at 1B if he's not on the roster.

I know but Casas went down. I was asking what his plan was once Casas went down.

I rest my case....

So what was Coras plan for 1B then?

You don't know? They moved him to DH because it was open and they had an opportunity to get an all star level defender there. And it worked, Bregman was great.....then Casas got hurt and Devers (who it had been said for a while was destined for 1B) was asked to move to 1B. We can argue all day about who is to blame, and what is what but it is very knowable what happened. The plan was for Raffy to DH, then Casas got hurt and the plan changed.

I know BTV isn't the end all be all but it's a usefull tool none the less. One thing I've looked at there the last couple years is how actual trades that happened were valued. And for the most part the BTV was very close to equal on both sides of the vast majority of trades. What is interesting, and not surprising at all, is where I saw larger discrepencies in value. Trade deadline trades where prospects where traded for MLB talent. Pretty consistently. So if you're putting together a prospect package that matches the value of a proven quality mlb player on BTV......odds are you're probably way too light. It makes sense....a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-farm-system-midseason-talent-rankings-for-july-2026/ BA mid season rankings places the Sox farm system at #9 considering what they have gradauted the last two years this is pretty good.

How about Anthony Eyanson, Yoeilin Cespedes, and Brooks Brannon to Houston for Jeremy Pena?

This is my general thought as well. I'm not in buy mode yet, but I'm so much closer to it than I ever thought I would be a month ago. The one thing I think we all don't want to see is this hug the line bull poop. At least if you get a guy with multiple years of control you can address a long term need they'd you'd look at in the offseason anyways. Sure it's going to cost you more, but it would have cost you more in the offseason anyways and you're getting more. I want a premium player with 2.5+ years of control.

He had a .970 OPS vs. LHP last year. Feels like a 2 week flier to see if he can recreate that. If not he will be cut. A lot of sellers are still going to be holding out and he got DFA'd so it makes sense with Nate Eaton struggling and going down.

Thank you. fixing now.

.440 OPS negative war guy. Whoopity dick dah doo. No in all seriousness, while this may not be the move to fire up the duck boats this guy did hit .970 last year vs. LHP. A lot of the big names being traded will probably still stay on the board for another week or two. It makes sense to roll this guy out against LHP as our DH for the next couple weeks and see if he can find that 2025 magic. If not.....he won't be here long.