SAN FRANCISCO — The last few months of Rafael Devers’ time with the Red Sox were filled with blatant refusals to switch positions. On his first day as a Giant, though, Devers struck a much-different tone.
“They’re the men in charge,” Devers said when asked where he’d play for San Francisco. “I am here to play wherever they want me to play.”
A player who bristled in February when the Red Sox asked him to move from third base to designated hitter, then outright refused to take ground balls at first base in May after Triston Casas’ season-ending knee injury was suddenly willing to do anything for Giants manager Bob Melvin, who he had first met hours earlier. There was no drama, demands or discussion. So what changed?
Devers, asked that question during his introductory press conference at Oracle Park, cited the fact he was in a new organization, then repeated his answer about president of baseball operations Buster Posey, general manager Zack Minasian and Melvin being the men in charge. So there Devers was, less than three hours before his Giants debut, taking grounders at first base with former Red Sox teammate Dominic Smith.
Devers’ amenability to playing anywhere for the Giants isn’t rooted in reverence for Posey or Melvin, two men with which he had no prior history before the trade. It’s not a product of wanting to stick it to the Red Sox, either. Devers, according to league sources with knowledge of his thinking, would have been open to a position change in Boston, too, had he felt like the team communicated expectations for him more effectively. Those who know Devers best contend that his irritation with the Red Sox — and subsequent public refusals — was not because he was unwilling to move positions but rather because he felt like the team, especially during the winter while pursuing Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado, was not up-front enough with him.
“It’s not what you ask,” a Devers confidant said Tuesday. “It’s how you ask it.”
In February, Devers claimed that the Red Sox, when offering him a 10-year, record-setting contract extension in January 2023, assured him he “would be playing this position (third base) for a long time.” Cora clapped back by noting that “Chaim (Bloom) is in St. Louis,” noting that Breslow was in charge and that the man who had extended Devers had been fired months after the contract was signed. Throughout the winter, Devers’ confidants claim, the Red Sox issued repeated assurances that Devers would not be moved off third base and that any speculation about Breslow trying to trade for Arenado or sign Bregman was blown out of proportion by the media. Devers was caught off guard during the first week of spring training when the Sox agreed to sign Bregman to a unique, opt-out heavy deal that could total $120 million over three seasons. The first sign of tension came on February 16, when as teammates like Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder attended Bregman’s introductory press conference in a show of support, Devers walked by the event, while in progress, in street clothes as he left Fenway South. A day later, he went public with his disdain over Boston’s request to move him to designated hitter, which had happened days earlier.
By May, when Breslow went to Devers to see if he’d pick his glove back up and learn first base with Casas out, Devers was once again surprised by the request. It was no secret that he eventually might move across the diamond as he aged. But Devers was surprised that the club, soon after asking him to put his glove away, was asking him to bail them out again. He began feeling like a scapegoat for the club’s early-season struggles, sources say. Devers felt like “he received mixed messages from different voices in the organization,” a source close to him said, and that there was a “disorganized approach to communicating expectations to their star player.” As MassLive reported over the weekend, that’s what led to a situation that people on both sides described as so “unsalvageable” and “untenable” that even an impromptu May 9 meeting with John Henry couldn’t save things.
In San Francisco, though, comes a clean slate for Devers. Having only been in the organization for 48 hours, Devers doesn’t have a history of communication issues with his new club. So with a change of scenery comes a new role for the three-time All-Star, who will see “a little bit of DH and a little bit of first,” according to his new manager.
“We talked to him a little bit today and he said, ‘I’ll play wherever you want me to play. I’ll hit wherever you want me to hit.’ That’s how it started,” Melvin said. “He’s gonna DH today. He’s gonna hit in the three-spot. We’re gonna work him in and get him some ground balls at first and make sure he’s comfortable before we put him over there.
“If you can play third, you can play first,” he added. “He has done a great job at third before. I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult for him. More than anything, the fact he hasn’t played in the field this year, we have to take our time working him in. It’s a new position, so we’ll take it day-to-day.”
There’s blame to go around, of course, with Red Sox players, coaches and decision-makers feeling like Devers, as a highly paid employee of the club, should have done what the team asked of him no matter how it was presented. As the Red Sox move on from the Devers era, they’ll do so wondering what they could have done to prevent a messy divorce.
“I think about that question all of the time,” Breslow said Monday when asked if he had any regrets about how he communicated with Devers. “This is not the outcome we expected and it has forced me to reflect on the interactions I’ve had, not just with Raffy but with other players, and opportunities to communicate differently.
“I don’t know if this outcome would have played out any differently. I think there’s a decent chance it wouldn’t have. But I absolutely need to have the humility to look back at the interactions and figure out what I could have done better.”
