The battle between Rafael Devers and the Boston Red Sox is reaching a head, and longtime baseball writer Ken Rosenthal believes the team owes its star position-less player some consistency in the upcoming days.
In a scathing column for The Athletic, Rosenthal called for the Red Sox to stick with Devers at DH rather than scrambling to teach the star ex-third baseman to play first base.
The Red Sox are 22-20 and two games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East standings. Led by Devers, who leads the AL in walks (31) and is slashing .280/.398/.490, and his replacement at third base Alex Bregman (.311/.384/.511) the Red Sox are sixth in the majors in runs scored (205).
Still, the Devers-Red Sox marriage may be destined for a breakup, even though the career-long Boston infielder just signed a 10-year, $313.5 million contract just last year.
From Rosenthal:
From Jon Lester to Mookie Betts to Xander Bogaerts, the John Henry ownership has a history of botching it with star players. The signing of Devers was at least in part a reaction to the team’s failure to keep Betts, which proved a disaster, and Bogaerts, which looks better by the day. But at least it was a commitment.
Devers, 28, was to be the centerpiece of the next Red Sox renaissance. And less than 2 1/2 years after giving him the richest deal in franchise history — under a different head of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom, but the same ownership — it almost seems as if the team wants him to go away.
The Back Story
The Red Sox and Devers have been battling as far back as spring training.
Hoping to bolster its defense at third base, and add a powerful right-handed bat at the righty-friendly confines of Fenway Park, Boston signed Bregman to a three-year deal worth $40 million annually.
Though Bregman is the reigning AL Gold Glove-winner at third base, and two-time World Series champion, the move irked Devers, and he publicly barbed with Boston after the deal was announced by calling third base “my position.”
Still, Devers ultimately relented and accepted the move to DH, and he has continued to hit, despite a disastrous 0 for 19 start with 15 strikeouts. Plus, Bregman has played like an MVP candidate, posting the fourth-best WAR in the American League (2.3) through the season’s first quarter.
So even though it looked like Boston was headed to a resolution with Devers, an injury to first baseman Tristan Casas threw a further wrench into everyone’s plans.
Injury Adds to Drama
Casas, 25, expects to be Boston’s first baseman of the future. But his season is over after the team revealed he ruptured his left patellar tendon.
That move led Boston brass, including Henry and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, to ask Devers to start playing first base. Devers has balked publicly at that too.
“I don’t think, for me personally, it’s the best decision after they asked me to play a different position,” Devers told MLB.com through an interpreter, “and I only had two months playing this position to all of a sudden have me try to play another position. So, from my end, it doesn’t seem like a good decision.”
Rosenthal anticipates Devers will be forced into trying first base out of public sentiment. But he also doesn’t blame the player for standing up to the pressure.
“It’s not Devers’ fault the Red Sox were negligent in finding an alternative for [Casas], who missed nearly four months in 2024 with a strained left rib cage and is out for the rest of 2025,” Rosenthal wrote. “In reality, by agreeing to such a change in the middle of a season, Devers would risk injury, offensive regression and embarrassment.”
MLB Insider Urges Red Sox to Make a Final Call on Rafael Devers