David Ortiz rips Rafael Devers once more following commerce from Purple Sox

Ortiz spoke only Spanish during the live video. His quotes are all translated to English, via Translate Now and Translate.mom.

“So, you were one of the third basemen last year who played the worst defense, and you’re going to show up to training out of shape,” Ortiz said. “They bring in a Gold Glove third baseman because of the deficit you had last year, and you say they’re disrespecting you. No, man, that’s not how you look at baseball.”

There are two sides to the coin on the Rafael Devers saga that began shortly after Boston signed Alex Bregman. Some pointed out that the organization was unclear with Devers from the start, floating the idea of Bregman playing second before pivoting to him at third rather quickly in spring training. Others, like Ortiz, believe Devers should have been willing to take any positional change in stride and put the team’s needs first.

Those tempers flared again once Triston Casas got hurt, and Devers reportedly was uninterested in slotting in at first base so quickly after Alex Cora reportedly told him to throw his glove away.

“If you didn’t handle your business and you showed up the way you did, the one who disrespected the team and the players was you,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz made a Hall of Fame career out of his time as a designated hitter, but was notably willing to play in the infield (primarily first base) when the team needed him to. He also attempted to reach out to Devers to give him advice multiple times, but those messages were largely disregarded according to Ortiz, who even showed his phone on the live with multiple unanswered text messages sent to Devers.