The entire baseball world was locked-in to the three-game series at Oracle Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, as Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers went head-to-head with the Red Sox less than a week after shockingly being traded away from Boston - an organization he had been a part of since he was 16 years old.
While a segment of Red Sox (40-39) fans felt a bout of schadenfreude as Devers went 0-5 at the plate in game one of the series on Friday, another segment of fans felt a bout of anger as Devers hit a home run on Saturday that catapulted the Giants (44-34) to a 3-2 victory in game two.
Make no mistake about it, this whole thing is incredibly complicated. Devers deserves blame for how he carried himself in the lead-up to being traded, and the Red Sox deserve blame for mismanaging a relationship with their 28-year-old DH who was signed to a semi-market friendly contract through the end of the 2033 season.
But for WEEI’s Adam Jones and Rich Keefe, the way Devers carried himself throughout the weekend series tipped the scales further towards anger-at-the-player than it did towards anger-at-the-Sox.
“Did it bother you that it seemed like Devers was having fun this weekend?” Jones asked Keefe on Monday’s Jones and Keefe. “It bothered me.”
“Well, I kind of laughed at it, to be honest,” said Keefe. “Like, what is this guy's problem? We knew that them signing Bregman was his problem, right? So I guess I answered my own question. But when he's talking about, like, it's been so long since he's been happy and all this stuff - like, dude, you were the highest paid guy in franchise history.
“They pretty much let you be. They're like, ‘You're booting the ball at third base, you're the third baseman.’ Up until Bregman was available, then they got Bregman. And you're making it seem like you were in the worst organization, you had the worst teammates, you had a manager that didn't stick up for you at all times until this year. I can understand the last few weeks, few months, you weren't thrilled about it, and your own personal issues with it. But to make it sound like, ‘oh my God, you were in prison with the Red Sox,’ is insane.”
“Let me give you another example,” Jones responded. “After the win on Saturday, where he didn't hit a walk-off or anything. He just homered earlier against his former team, and they won. So I'm not saying he didn’t have a role in it, but just - I don't know, typically the Gatorade bath is reserved for a walk-off win. But [Devers got the Gatorade bath] after the game on Saturday [during a postgame interview with] NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Our guy Boston Sports Gordo, he pointed out, ‘Oh, Devers likes doing postgame media now?’ Like, ‘Oh, OK! So now that he’s a Giant and now that he wants to ingratiate himself with the new fan base and teammates instead of freezing them out, putting David Ortiz on mute, he wants to ingratiate himself and celebrate and now do the postgame [interview], which he couldn’t be bothered to do when he was in Boston. Interesting - I just wanted to get it all straight, that’s all.”
“Just because you’re the best hitter doesn’t mean you’re a leader,” said Keefe. “However, all the other guys on the team take turns doing these walk-off interviews. And if you're like, ‘Hey, I don't really care what he says.’ That's not really the point.
“It's sort of like - alright, we're going to grab this guy, or we're going to grab this guy, and they're going to speak for you. I think it might have been Gordo that posted a while ago, Rafael Devers did have a walk-off hit and then NESN goes to get him. And it's like, ‘He's not doing it.’ So Jarren Duran has to do the interview. They're like, ‘Hey Jarren, what do you think of Devers’ hit?’ He’s like, ‘I don't know, maybe go ask him.’ Like, he didn't have time for that. And it just sort of trickles down to how you feel about your teammates, how you feel about the whole situation.”
“And I agree with your stance on this, by the way,” said Jones. “Not everybody's a leader. Devers clearly isn't a leader. In fact, he's a bad teammate, so he's the opposite of a leader. But then don't go to San Francisco and now all of a sudden, pretend that you're like a different guy.
“It’s just more fraudulence from him. That's what bothers me. Alright, you're not a leader. Alright, you don't do media. Now you're a Giant, you do media? Now you're a Giant, you're happy to do the walk-off? And you're happy to play wherever? And let's do Gatorade baths! Where was this?”
“You see it in other sports,” said Keefe. “You don't like the role on your team, and then you go somewhere else and they redo your contract. That's different. He's getting paid the exact same amount. So it's like, ‘Alright, I'm going to be a pain in the ass for $30 million a year that you're paying me. Now I get traded - I'm going to get paid now by them, but the same amount of U.S. dollars, and yet I'm going to act completely different. Everything's great now.’ Like yeah, good riddance.
“I know [Devers] homered on Saturday and whatever else, and the Giants won two out of three, but I've never felt more strongly after the way the whole series went. Like, I'm good. Wash your hands of Rafael Devers. They'll be better off in the long run.”
“I think part of the reason he was so bubbly, effervescent, having such an outwardly obvious fun time, is because he was jamming it right in the Red Sox face,” said Jones. “Which is his right. But that annoyed me while I was watching this weekend. So the fraudulence was off the charts this weekend.”
With Devers in the rearview, the Red Sox will continue their west coast road trip on Monday night, as they open a three-game series in Anaheim against the Angels (37-40). They’ll do so with Walker Buehler (5-5, 5.95 ERA) on the mound, with Jack Kochanowicz (3-8, 5.38 ERA) on the bump for Los Angeles.
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