As Boston tumbles down the AL East standings and Roman Anthony marks off the days of his Polar Park post-grad year, one player has emerged as the lightning rod for these dysfunctional Red Sox: Rafael Devers.
Devers is the Red Sox’ highest paid player, but he won’t move to first base to replace an injured Tristan Casas. Without playing the field, he’s the third-hottest hitter in the majors right now (his 1.119 OPS in May trails just Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani). Countless reports indicate the Sox brass ultimately failed in communicating their expectations for Devers’ position this season, especially when bringing in free agent third basemen Alex Bregman to replace him in the field.
In the court of public opinion concerning Rafael Devers, everyone’s a little bit at fault, and home runs aren’t enough to save face.
Manager Alex Cora – who’s emerging as a divisive figure in his own right this season – sounded exasperated describing Devers’ standing as a designated hitter earlier this week. The Sox needed to show some spark after a disappointing 5-5 homestand, but got swept by the mediocre Milwaukee Brewers in three games.
Cora reiterated that Devers won’t play third base while Bregman recovers from his recent quad injury, but seemed to leave the door open just a crack for another possibility: first base.
“We’ll keep talking about the other position, but as of now, it’s not happening,” he told media.
When pressed for clarification, Cora sounded like a walking eye roll and tried to push that door closed again.
“We always have conversations. He’s not going to play first base. We’re still talking about the situation, man.”
The comments stand in stark contract to those from another former 2018 champion, Mookie the-one-who-got-away Betts. CBS Sports insider Julian McWilliams wrote a terrific feature this week on Betts making a switch to shortstop last season.
“It's fun when it's something that I've never done," Betts told McWilliams. “So, anytime, somebody's doing something new, like myself especially, I guess you just embrace and enjoy those challenges. But, really, it's just to help the team be able to re-sign guys and bring new faces to help the team. So it's kind of what it is.”
Now, compare that sentiment to what Devers told local media here at the beginning of May, through translator Daveson Perez:
“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there. In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove -- that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH. So right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”
Yikes.
Devers has never been better positioned to leverage himself: through 58 games, he’s having a career-best level season after starting out ice cold. The Red Sox told the three-time All Star to just focus on hitting, and he’s doing a hell of a job at it. But the flip side of the Devers coin is emblematic of these Red Sox themselves: he’s uber talented, but fans have to wish he wouldn’t try to leverage his position. It’s entirely possible that behind the scenes, Devers is in the right to stick his nose up at Craig Breslow about moving positions. It’s still a selfish look publicly for the one guy out of the three homegrown prospects the Red Sox kept from 2018. And despite getting his massive extension, Devers has never shown himself capable of being a clubhouse leader.
He can only lead by example through execution at the plate.
He isn’t the only polarizing athlete in Boston sports right now: Jeremy Swayman immediately put the target on himself in contract negotiations last summer. But he was bad this year. What makes Devers’ standing fascinating is how he became a coinflip in popular fandom while at the height of his prowess. He’s not all that’s wrong with the 2025 Red Sox, but he doesn’t look like the $313 million savior, either.