MLB Analyst Scolds Red Sox Management For Getting Bullied By Rafael Devers

The Boston Red Sox have been through two separate — albeit related — Rafael Devers conflicts already this season.

First, Red Sox management ran into trouble when Devers pushed back against moving to designated hitter to make room for new acquisition Alex Bregman (a Gold Glove third baseman and superior defensive player to Devers).

Begrudgingly, Devers ultimately acquiesced to the situation and eventually embraced his new role as Boston’s designated hitter.

Once Devers broke out of an early-season slump and started mashing, it seemed like any drama related to the position change was in the rearview for good.

But Red Sox management (Alex Cora, CBO Craig Breslow, others) made a grave mistake in its handling of the initial Devers problem — they told Devers to effectively retire his glove, or in essence, that he’d no longer be playing in the field at all moving forward.

This was a foolish way of going about things on two levels. First, by promising to Devers that he wouldn’t be returning to the field as some way of enticing him to DH full-time, Cora and Co. weren’t preparing themselves for an inevitable future in which some of Boston’s infielders (e.g. Bregman) missed time due to injury, which would ostensibly require Devers to re-enter the diamond defensively.

Secondly, by establishing Devers as some sort of “permanent” DH, the Red Sox were betraying the sacred notion that a team's players can and must play any position they are asked to play if and when required to do so. The "DH promise" to Devers was wrong merely in the sense that it undermined the notion that no player under contract is above the collective team.

In a cruel twist of fate for Boston, Bregman is now injured, leading to a second Devers dilemma — Raffy’s refusal to play first base.

Because Devers was asked to DH in the manner he was asked, he felt empowered to vehemently reject the notion of playing first, which has caused a negative ripple effect in the clubhouse and has made things difficult for other players like Kristian Campbell as they go out of their way to adjust to Devers’s selfishness.

On Wednesday night, with Boston losers of five straight games, MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds scolded the Red Sox for their handling of the Devers-first base situation, saying that they either need to put Devers in his place or otherwise go acquire a first baseman. The Red Sox have done neither.

“I’m sorry, but the Red Sox (need to) go get a first baseman,” Reynolds insisted during a new episode of MLB Tonight.

“We said this a month ago. You either get Devers and say, ‘You're playing first’, or you go get a first baseman.”

“This is what I don't get. He blew up; he embarrassed the organization. They hopped on a flight and went to Kansas City. What'd they say? “It's okay”? No! You say, ‘Your butt's going to first base. We give you $30 million a year.’”

MLB Network’s analyst Al Leiter then challenged Reynolds.

“What if he says no?” Leiter asked, alluding to Devers.

“Then you got a problem,” Reynolds replied. “And you know what? Look, they're falling out of this thing now. They've lost five (in a row).”

“You have to sit down and re-fix this thing,” Reynolds continued. “Kristian Campbell's not the answer at first base.”

Reynolds is correct on all accounts.