Red Sox-Rafael Devers Mess Leads To Surprising Prediction From MLB Analyst

The Boston Red Sox have another Rafael Devers situation on their hands, but is Devers at all to blame?

Only a couple of months removed from being asked to give up his position at third base and become a designated hitter, Devers is now reportedly being asked by Red Sox management to play first base (in the wake of Triston Casas’s season-ending injury).

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow reportedly spoke with Devers about the position change.

Here’s what Devers had to say on Thursday about the situation (per MassLive’s Christopher Smith):

“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there. In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove — that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH. So right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position. It was the GM that I spoke with. I’m not sure what he has with me. He played ball, and I would like to think he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy.”

On Thursday night, MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds responded to Devers’s comments and offered his prediction on how this saga will end.

“I have no problem with it,” Reynolds said on MLB Tonight, referring to Devers’s quote.

“I think, knowing Raffy and knowing the other men involved here, (this) is a sit-down conversation. ‘You tell me (to) put my glove away, and now you tell me (to) pick it up and go play somewhere and learn first base?’”

“I get it. He's got feelings. He did the same thing earlier when everybody was saying he should go be a DH. He didn't want to. But he did it. He conformed. I think it's a conversation that he's gonna do it again.”

“He will play first base, but they better sit down and rectify it.”

MLB Tonight host Greg Amsinger then asked Reynolds to repeat his assertion.

“So you think he will eventually (play) first?” Amsinger asked.

“I think he will,” Reynolds said.

Time will tell if Reynolds is accurate in his forecast for Devers. One thing’s clear: Boston should sort through this mess as soon as possible.