Red Sox
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen this weekend. We haven’t gotten there.”
After Rafael Devers’s quotes during his Giants introductory press conference earlier this week, the reality of the ex-Red Sox star playing first base against Boston this weekend felt real.
“I’m here to play wherever they want me to play,” Devers told reporters in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Fortunately for Boston (in a defensive aspect, at least), its former slugger will be the Giants’ designated hitter for the three-game series between the teams in the Bay Area Friday-Sunday.
San Francisco’s manager Bob Melvin clarified this while speaking with KNBR’s “Murph and Markus” on Friday.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen this weekend,” Melvin said. “We haven’t gotten there. … It’s going to take a little bit more time than having him at first base during the Red Sox series.”
Devers was dealt to the Giants in a bombshell trade on Sunday. He had appeared in all of the Red Sox’ 73 games as their designated hitter this season after moving off third base in favor of Alex Bregman.
In three games with San Francisco this week, Devers similarly played DH, continuing his perfect streak.
“I mean, certainly, Raffy’s going to be in there and agreeing to play first base, and we’ll be working on that here for several days before we feel comfortable running him out there,” Melvin said.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Melvin outlined his team’s plan for Devers moving forward.
“We talked to him a little bit today, and like he said, he goes, ‘I’ll play wherever you want me to play, I’ll hit wherever you want me to hit,’” Melvin said, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “So that’s how it started. … We’re going to work him in and get him some ground balls at first and make sure he’s comfortable before we put him over there.
“That’s pretty much the way we look at it right now: A little bit of DH and a little bit of first.”
Devers’s willingness to play first base for his new team is a stark reminder of how poorly things ended in Boston.
The star slugger publicly refused to play first base for the Red Sox in early May after Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury. Devers revealed that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow asked him to make the switch.
“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” Devers said after a game on May 8. “In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove. I wasn’t going to play another position other than DH. Right now, I don’t think it would be an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”
However, The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham shared on BlueSky on Tuesday that “Devers was willing to play first base for the Red Sox but wanted the team to commit to keeping him at that position moving forward, not to go back and forth.”
In step with Abraham’s report, ESPN’s Jeff Passan shared a quote from a confidant of Devers regarding the way Boston handled the situation.
“Sometimes it’s not the message,” the person close to Devers told Passan. “It’s how the message is delivered.”
Nonetheless, Devers has made it clear since joining the Giants that he wants to move on from what transpired with the Red Sox.
During the player’s pregame media availability Friday, he “repeatedly” said he doesn’t want to answer anymore questions about the situation, per The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey.
Devers also said he’s the happiest he’s been “in a long time,” per Cotillo.
Devers is indeed playing DH and batting third for San Francisco on Friday, with Wilmer Flores handling first base. First pitch is set for 10:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
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