Rafael Devers Breaks Silence On Meeting With Red Sox Owner John Henry

It's Friday, which means Rafael Devers is officially an opponent of the Boston Red Sox.

Just a week ago, Devers and the Red Sox were getting ready to play the New York Yankees in a three-game series at Fenway Park. But the drama that had been simmering behind the scenes all season boiled over on Sunday, when the slugger was shipped off to the San Francisco Giants.

There was a long timeline of events that led to the Red Sox's and Devers' relationship fracture. But Boston asking him to play first base in the wake of Triston Casas' injury on May 2 was seemingly the final straw.

More specifically, an impromptu meeting between Devers, manager Alex Cora, and principal owner John Henry in Kansas City on May 9 has been pinpointed by many as the straw that broke the camel's back. Devers had blasted chief baseball officer Craig Breslow in front of the media the day before for asking him to make the switch.

On Thursday, Devers became the first participant in the meeting to divulge any of the topics that were discussed, and seemingly provided some clarity about why both sides felt the time was right to move on.

 “They wanted me to play first base. I told [Henry] they eventually, yes. I could play first base but maybe next year. It was not my fault that players get hurt,” Devers told the Boston Globe. “I felt like if another player got hurt, they would move me again.”

Devers' agent, Nelson Montes de Oca, also told the Globe earlier this week that his client would have been willing to make the switch to first base, but only if the Red Sox were willing to commit to using him there on a full-time basis. Devers, though, makes it sound like he would have only done that in 2026.

Flash forward to this week, and Devers has been taking ground balls at first base before every game he's played with the Giants, after pledging to do whatever the team asked of him in his introductory press conference.

The Giants and Red Sox will play an emotionally charged three games this weekend, and we'll continue to dissect what went wrong in a $313.5 million marriage. But when that's over, it's for the best if everyone involved can turn the page.

Because clearly, as Breslow and CEO Sam Kennedy said 15 times in their press conference on Monday, Devers and the team simply couldn't find any "alignment."