Red Sox leadership drops the ball on third base chaos

Third baseman Rafael Devers has every right to be furious. 

Imagine signing an 11-year, $331 million extension as the face of a franchise, only to wake up two years later and find your team chasing your replacement — without so much as a conversation. 

That’s precisely what the Boston Red Sox did. It was not due to defensive metrics, analytics or some grand strategic shift — it was mismanagement.

Third baseman Alex Bregman’s three-year, $120 million deal should have been a defining move for an organization desperate to reclaim relevance. Instead, it’s become another entry in the Red Sox’s ongoing saga of dysfunction.

The problem isn’t Bregman. He’s saying all the right things. 

“I’m super excited to just be his teammate,” Bregman told reporters via WEEI’s Rob Bradford. 

But the team’s handling of Devers, a three-time All-Star, has been nothing short of reckless.

Manager Alex Cora initially tried to assure everyone that Devers would have every chance to remain at third base. 

“He feels like he’s a third baseman. He’s going to work out as a third baseman, and then we'll make decisions accordingly,” Cora told MLB.com's Ian Browne. 

Then came the shift. When asked whether Devers had been promised the position by former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, Cora's response was telling.

“Different people here, right?” he said. “There’s a different leader here. Chaim is in St. Louis now.”

Translation? The Red Sox never had a real plan. Like everyone else, Devers was left to piece it together. Rather than an honest conversation with their star player before pursuing Bregman, the front office let the situation spiral into unnecessary drama.

Devers made his stance clear. “No. Third base is my position. It's what I play. I don't know what their plans are. We had a conversation. I made it clear on what my desires were. Whatever happens from here, I don't know," he told The Athletic's Steve Buckley.