Dare to dream.
Rafael Devers, the owner of the fifth-most home runs in the American League (21), swinging his way through this year's Home Run Derby in Coors Field would have been something. But, alas, no dice.
None of the three Red Sox position players heading to Denver for the All-Star Game -- Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Devers -- will be part of the eight-player field that constitutes this year's Home Run Derby.
We are talking about getting the chance to hit baseballs in the thinnest air Major League Baseball has to offer, while looking at chance to claim $1 million if you actually win. But for even a player like Devers, who has yet to get his big payday or the kind of MLB-wide recognition he deserves, it's not worth it.
It is the narrative that undoubtedly has been passed around the Red Sox' batting cages.
"It's not about the money ... It's a lot of stress, man," Martinez told WEEI.com back in 2019. "You're hitting for two minutes straight, easy. Trying to hit the ball as far as you can. I remember seeing it the first time they did it when I wanted to do it and I said, 'Thank God I didn't do it.' It was just exhausting. Those guys were out there drenched.
"The All-Star Game in itself is stressful. There's so much going on. It's not even a break. You don't have time to relax. You have to be on. It's one of those things, along with that ... I'm sure if I was making a lot less I would think about it. To me, it's about the team and giving my body the rest that it needs."
One person who has been privy to some of those casual conversations, while also witnessing the impact of the event first-hand, is Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers.
While the rules of the event have been tweaked over the years, with players allowed a 45-second timeout in each of the three regulation periods, there are plenty of examples of the Derby setting guys down the wrong path.
The last champ, Pete Alonso, for example, went on to hit .133 (8-for-60) for the remainder of July, 2019.
"I think it is individual to each hitter. But I would say, and I'm just looking based on numbers, there are some guys ... You do see some of the swings where there is such a fatigue and a mental fatigue where they start the second half on a slow start," Hyers told WEEI.com. "With the batting average and the slug, there are some guys who get off to a slow start in the second half. I think it affects each guy differently, but I have seen some guys personally who loses the barrel and start using the body a lot more. Work underneath the baseball a little more probably they did right before the competition. They've just got to get their swing back in gear and find sweet spot.
"It is different. It is totally different because the ball is coming in slow. You're using some of the bigger muscles. You can create that sequence of your swing to elevate, because that's what you want to do to get the ball up in the air to create homers. But when you start game competition and you're having to combat different speed and different velocities, you want to tighten that back up. You obviously want to stay above the ball and flatten that swing out. How does it affect each hitter? To me an individual basis."
In semi-recent Red Sox memory, the one example of the Derby having a very real impact on a hitter came in 2011. That was when Adrian Gonzalez finished second in the event to Robinson Cano, but proceeded to go on a home run drought, hitting just one over the next five weeks.
It was a run then-Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan had a front row seat for.
"I knew it impacted Adrian's swing for the second half of that season," the current Rockies hitting coach told WEEI.com by phone. "He was so good hitting the ball the other way, driving the ball into the left-center field gap. He felt like after the Home Run Derby he was trying to jerk balls to the pull side and he kind of lost his feel for that low-liner swing to left-center field that he had perfected so well. I think the guys who do well in the Home Run Derby are the ones who use the whole field. They don't go up there and just yank balls to the pull-side, especially at Coors. The ball goes out no matter where you hit it. You get the ball up and get it in the air. Especially with the non-humidor balls. But I have talked to Story a little bit about it. He has got power to all fields so I just try and get him to buy in and not realize you don't have to just wrap it around the fair pole.
"Adrian was excited to do it and he did well. He really was looking forward to it. I think a lot of it, too, with him, it drained him. Back then the format was different and he felt like he was absolutely exhausted coming out of that whole All-Star Game experience so it just took him time to recover it physically from it in terms of how taxing it was on his body."
This trio of Red Sox hitters aren't the first from the organization to give the stiff-arm to the competition. David Ortiz, who won the event in 2010, told WEEI.com back in 2013, "I’m done with that. I can’t do it no more. I can’t even do it in batting practice. Watch me in batting practice, I might lose a couple of balls but that’s it. I can’t do it. It wears me out. Wears me out. And you know the Home Run Derby can be taken lightly. You have to be young with a lot of energy.” Sure enough, he never did it again.
When it comes to Devers and Co., you never say never. But if there was ever a time ... Oh well. It would have been fun.
"I know they would put a show on and hit a lot of homers," Hyers said. "It would be exciting to see them in that competition, but I totally understand why they would not want to. Obviously, it's a long season and they have some bigger goals and want to help this team win and that plays the biggest part into their decision."