TBNL: Boston's Rafael Devers problem

Six weeks into the season, the Boston Red Sox have a Rafael Devers-sized problem to address.

Let’s take a moment to recap how we got here:

• January 2023. Boston signs Devers to a 10-year, $313.5M contract extension. Devers is allegedly “promised he will remain a third baseman” during negotiations with GM Chaim Bloom.

• September 2023. Bloom is fired and replaced by Craig Breslow.

• Winter 2024-25. Rumors begin swirling that Boston is pursuing Alex Bregman to play third base. Devers seems unfazed by the rumors, but stands by his stance that “he’s a third baseman.”

• February 2025. Boston signs Bregman to a three-year, $120M contract (which he can opt out of after Year 1). Devers is told when spring training begins that he will “primarily DH.” He pushes back on the change publicly, from MLB.com’s Ian Browne:

• Devers sets an MLB record for the most strikeouts over the season’s first three games (10 Ks in 12 PA). Predictably, some members of the media (and portions of the Red Sox fanbase) drastically overreact to the slow start.

• Devers’ slow start ends. He’s batting .280/.398/.490 (149 OPS+) through 42 games (entering play Monday), leading the AL with 31 walks. He has only appeared as a DH. He was just named AL Player of the Week.

• May 2. First baseman Triston Casas ruptures his left patellar tendon and is lost for the remainder of the season.

• Boston media ask Devers about a potential move to first base. His comments, as Yahoo!’s Jack Baer collected, are pointed:

• The next day, Red Sox owner John Henry made a rare appearance, joining the team in Kansas City to meet privately with Cora and Devers.

• The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey wrote an excellent column on Saturday, pointing out that both sides are really to blame in this debacle. Within, McCaffrey notes that getting Devers to move to DH in the first place wasn’t an easy discussion:

To their credit, most of the other Red Sox players seem to be steering clear of the discussion publicly. So far.

It’s worth noting, Triston Casas wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball before the injury. Through 112 PA, Casas was hitting just .182/.277/.303 (63 OPS+). He’d struck out 27 times through 29 games. The 25-year-old was off to the worst start of his brief career.

Utilityman Romy González got the first call to fill in for Casas after the injury. The 28-year-old had never played first base professionally before last season. 12 of his 17 games on the year so far have come at the position, while González has hit .308/.362/.423 (120 OPS+) over 58 PA before landing on the IL himself with a back strain.

Abraham Toro (5 games) and Nick Sogard (2) have also seen time at first base, combining to go 3-for-23 at the plate.

Boston’s offense ranks sixth in the majors in OPS (entering play on Monday) despite the minimal production from first base. Still, it’s not a hole they can simply ignore for long.

Now, in theory, there should be a simple resolution to all of this. It would require both sides stepping up, admitting they were wrong, and finding a compromise to allow everyone to move forward. Devers could slide over to first base, even temporarily, for the remainder of the season and the club could then add someone (Masataka Yoshida, Roman Anthony, or Marcelo Mayer) to the roster to take at bats at DH.

Seems simple, doesn’t it, but that’s why such a resolution feels increasingly unlikely.

If one of the two sides was going to offer a mea culpa to resolve things, that likely would have happened already.

Boston will need to find another option to address their hole at first base. The club doesn’t appear enthralled with their internal options, again highlighting the lack of depth they failed to address in the offseason. The Triple-A roster at Worcester doesn’t present a logical option (or even a natural first baseman). It doesn’t make sense to rush Double-A Portland’s Blaze Jordan to the majors (he’s hitting .255/.368/.398 over 117 PA).

ESPN’s Buster Olney polled rival executives last week about what the Sox should do at first base. The majority of the responses, unsurprisingly, thought that Devers was the ideal option to move to the position, though a few seemed to think “leaving him alone” might be best at this point.

Less popular suggestions included sliding Mayer or Kristian Campbell (which would let Mayer play second) over to first temporarily, similar to how the club used a rookie Xander Bogaerts at third base initially due to a need before moving him back to shortstop the next season.

Moving an outfielder like Anthony or Wilyer Abreu to first was viewed as a less-than-ideal option. Also considered unlikely, moving Trevor Story to first (Mayer would replace him at short). Curiously, however, Olney’s argument against moving Story would seem applicable to Devers, too:

Olney goes on to point to Story’s offensive struggles since coming to Boston but he’s also been hindered defensively. Shoulder injuries have kept him out of the lineup (he’s yet to appear in 100 games in his four seasons in Boston) and have diminished what was once among the game’s best arms at shortstop. A move to second base has seemingly been inevitable once Mayer takes over. There’s no reason to think Story couldn’t handle moving to first instead, letting Campbell remain at second.

This leaves the Red Sox with few options. They could continue to push along with a makeshift effort to cover first base until someone either steps up or some unexpected option becomes available on the waiver wire that they can’t resist claiming. This option seems unlikely.

They could, again, ask Devers to start taking grounders at first base before games. Give him a few weeks and see how things go before dropping him into a game at the position. Plenty of players have learned to play the position in the past with great success and there’s no reason (beyond stubbornness) to suggest Devers couldn’t do the same.

Or, they could explore adding an option from outside the organization. This feels like the most likely solution at this point.

Anthony Rizzo remains available after not receiving much interest during the offseason, but reports suggest the Red Sox have already ruled out that option. That leaves the trade market to explore finding a new first baseman. For the day job, I explored four potential trade options the team should be considering (each of which would be pure rentals for the remainder of the season).

Devers and the Red Sox are not parting ways anytime soon. His contract did not include a no-trade clause and his 10/5 no-trade rights won’t kick in for three more seasons, so Boston could, technically, move on if the relationship between player and organization is truly and irreparably damaged. It doesn’t feel like the situation has reached such an extreme stage yet.

Mother’s Day

Sunday was Mother’s Day, so there were naturally quite a few stories circulating over the weekend about players crediting their mothers and wives with making their careers possible. Some of the more interesting notes:

• It’s well-known that Pete Crow-Armstrong’s mother, Ashley, was an actress playing a key role in Little Big League. PCA talked to MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian about how she remains one of his biggest supporters.

• Amazingly, the oldest sons of Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón play on the same t-ball team in Greenwich, CT and are practically inseparable.

• Rangers third baseman Josh Jung and Tigers third baseman Jace Jung faced each other for the first time this weekend, with mom in attendance for Sunday’s game (she was invited to throw out the first pitch, too). The Athletic’s Levi Weaver pointed out this stat from the Rangers’ PR:

Elsewhere, around the sport …

• Alaskan high school senior left-hander Caleb Calhoun is receiving attention on social media and Reddit thanks to Jon Morosi pointing out his absurd stat line from the weekend. Calhoun’s Sitka Wolves beat the Ketchikan Kings, 24-0, in a mercy-rule shortened five-inning game. Calhoun pitched all five innings for the Wolves, striking out all fifteen batters he faced.

• The Rule 5 clock has run out on two more players selected in December. Noah Murdock has been returned to the Royals from the A’s. The White Sox also designated Gage Workman for assignment, meaning he’s likely going to be returned to the Tigers soon (unless someone claims him on waivers).

• Finally, the Rays announced that longtime fan favorite Evan Longoria will be honored in a pre-game ceremony on June 7. For the day job, I wrote a bit about the news that Longoria will sign a one-day contract to retire as a member of the team.