"I Play Third" - Team Guy Rafael Devers Showed Up To Spring Training With No Plans To Accommodate Alex Bregman And Switch Positions

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The Boston Red Sox kicked off Spring Training with a bang by signing Alex Bregman to a three year, $120M deal. The move put the finishing touches on a great offseason that repositioned themselves as a team to fear in the American League. With top prospects nearing the surface, pitching needs actually being addressed, and a fearsome righty veteran bat added to the middle of the order, they're poised to be a problem in 2025. All they gotta do is figure out where everyone is going to play. Rafael Devers has been the team's 3rd baseman, Alex Bregman has played 3rd forever, and prospect Kristian Campbell is ready to go at 2nd, primarily working at the position all offseason. Piecing everything together logically, you'd imagine Devers would move off 3rd and become the full-time DH since he's the far worse defensive option compared to Bregman.

It's worth noting that Devers has improved at the position over the years, and DRS is not a tell all stat as far as metrics go. We're not talking about Gleyber Torres defense when it comes to Devers, but Alex Bregman is just a whole lot fucking better. You acquire someone like him and you move out of the way. 

On Monday morning we got the first inklings of an answer to this question as Bregman took balls at 3rd. 

A few hours later this whole thing blew sky high. Devers adamantly stated he's a 3rd baseman and laughed off any idea that he'd move elsewhere. Surely music to the ears of Cora, Breslow, and the whole fanbase. This is the good stuff that destroys all the good vibes that were getting better by the day down in Florida.   

Devers was flabbergasted. Almost stunned at the idea that there are other positions for him to go to. 

Yankees biased perspective: Tremendous news all around. I'm dealing with the Stroman situation, Stanton can't move either of his elbows, and DJ LeMahieu is actively competing for the 3rd base job in 2025. It's about time something bad happened for Boston. 

Cora would go on to speak to the media and take a nice dump all over Devers' words. That promise of him remaining at 3rd when he signed his big extension is long gone. He got his money so now it's time to be a team guy. 

I think the strangest part of all this is that Devers wasn't in the know. Boston was very much looking at Bregman or Arenado late in the offseason to improve the defense and lineup. When Bregman first came up in rumors, Cora went out of his way to talk about coaching him in Houston, stating he always envisioned him as a 2nd baseman. Words like that gave a guy like Devers zero worry that he would be coming for job if they signing him. Did they just assume he knew they would change their tune and be cool with it? How do you not have the blessing of your cornerstone, franchise player that you're very much thinking of getting someone to play his position? Hey I forget to do things all the time, but I also don't run an MLB team. 

Yankees biased perspective: The easy, clear move here is to trade Devers. If he's not going to DH you can't have Bregman coming over and playing a new position. Trade Devers now at 28 years old in the same way you did with Mookie Betts. Just their luck, the Yankees need a 3rd baseman! Marcus Stroman adds some nice starting pitching depth in case you run into some arm injuries. Ask nicely and I'm sure Cashman throws in a prospect or two. Problem solved. 

Okay as bad as this may look right now, I have a hard time believing they don't figure this all out by Opening Day. Get David Ortiz in there to talk to Devers about being a full time DH. I'm sure he loves playing the field and being into the game with good routine, but at the same time this was gonna happen sooner or later. If he truly doesn't budge then I guess you're rolling with Bregman at 2nd until Devers gets hurt or the defensive alignment becomes a legitimate problem. One of Campbell's strengths is versatility so you could find him playing in the outfield when he's first called up. They gotta figure this out, but luckily they have time to do so being so early into camp. 

Yankees biased perspective: Gotta trade this guy, he's clearly a team cancer and only cares about himself. Plus that contract is awfully large, John Henry. You're paying Bregman $40M a year, you gotta off-load something to balance it out. Have you seen the price of eggs?