It’s rare for Red Sox principal owner John Henry to make a public appearance. The situation involving Rafael Devers, one of his highest-paid players, being disgruntled with the organization and publicly criticizing the front office leader, Craig Breslow, has compelled Henry to address the matter seriously with his star slugger.
Henry, Sam Kennedy, and Breslow flew to Kansas City on Friday to meet with Devers, indicating the organization is seeing the ordeal as a serious matter. What Henry and Devers discussed in the visiting manager's office on Friday afternoon remains largely unclear. Breslow told reporters that both sides had an “honest, candid exchange.”
The entire meeting was necessary after Devers was asked by the team about moving off of DH and playing first base and getting upset.
“I don’t think, me personally, it’s the best decision after they asked me to play a different position, and I don’t even have two months playing this position to all of a sudden have me play another position,” Devers said via interpreter Daveson Perez on Thursday. “From my end, it doesn’t seem like a good decision.”
“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” he continued later. “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 feel it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”
Breslow believed that the Friday afternoon conversation was necessary to align both parties' perspectives.
“Felt like it was important, based on the situation that unfolded [Thursday], to come out here and have an honest conversation about what we value as an organization and what we believe is important to the Boston Red Sox, that being great teammates for each other.”
(Brad Penner-Imagn Images)
One of the key takeaways from the meeting between Henry and Devers was around being a good teammate and positive clubhouse presence.
"We felt like it was important, based on the situation that unfolded yesterday, to come out here and have an honest conversation about what we value as an organization and what we believe is important to the Boston Red Sox — that being great teammates for each other. We think we had a productive conversation," Breslow said.
During spring training, the 28-year-old expressed his unwillingness to move off third base and accept the role of being the everyday designated hitter. Following the injury to first baseman Tristan Casas, Alex Cora remained adamant Devers wouldn’t play first base; Breslow saw it differently, wanting to keep all options on the table to improve the roster in the short term.
Cora remained firm that Devers will not be taking reps at first base, for now, when he spoke with the media following the Red Sox’ 2-1 loss to the Royals in extra innings on Friday night.
“That‘s not the plan right now,” said Cora when asked if Devers would start taking grounders at first base. “The plan is to keep having conversations.”
The Red Sox are still looking for answers at the position and will roll with Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro as a platoon. To make matters worse, Gonzalez is dealing with an injury following a collision at first base with Rangers' Josh Smith earlier this week.
Boston may place Gonzalez on the injured list on Saturday, potentially calling up either Nick Sogard or Vaughn Grissom to help fill the first base void.
While Breslow and Co. are looking for a viable solution, it’s reasonable to think the answer to their problem is already in the clubhouse. It’s puzzling to people on the outside looking in as to why the highest-paid player on the roster (outside of Alex Bregman) is playing hardball and refusing to do what’s best for the club. Devers said to the media on Thursday that the team felt he was being “hard-headed.” That is a fair assessment based on how everything has transpired from the time Bregman was signed to his comments in spring training and now his latest on Thursday evening.
(Peter Aiken-Imagn Images)
The entire situation is making everyone involved look bad, particularly Devers, who is being crushed by fans on social media for looking selfish and unwilling to do what’s best for the team. Breslow is getting his fair share of the blame pie for failing to properly address depth at first base at both the big league and upper levels of the minor leagues.
The Sox need to get Devers over to first and begin to field grounders. The faster both sides start this process, the sooner he can become comfortable and start playing games a few weeks from that point.
Devers is not the first star player, nor will he be the last, to be asked to shift from his natural position and play elsewhere on the diamond.
After the Sox acquired Kyle Schwarber from the Nationals in 2021, they helped him learn to play first so he could have his bat in the lineup. Phillies star Bryce Harper moved to first base after Rhys Hoskins injured his knee in spring training in 2023. The Philadelphia beat did not report any objections to Harper's move to a new position. Astros’ Jose Altuve volunteered to move off second base and to left field to help improve the roster this offseason.
Even Kevin Youkilis moved from third base to first base in 2006 to make room for Mike Lowell. Boston acquired Lowell and Josh Beckett from the Marlins the previous offseason, resulting in Youkilis moving off the hot corner.
Devers has every right to be upset the way the organization has handled everything over the last couple of months. The notion that he isn’t a team player isn’t a fair assessment. He did play 138 games last season while dealing with nagging shoulder injuries impacting him from July on. Devers played through the issue before the team shut him down at the end of the season. His production declined, but he made an effort to play and help the Red Sox compete.
The tension between the team and player is at an all-time high. Henry's conversation with Devers aimed to initiate a process that would ease tensions and bring both parties into alignment. More importantly, the team has invested $313.50 million in Devers and needs to improve the situation rapidly before it worsens to the point where he might request a trade. To clarify, there is no evidence that Devers has requested a trade, and the size of his contract makes such a request unlikely.
Breslow wants to focus on repairing the relationship with Devers before potentially shifting him away from DH and to first base.
Raffy Big Scoops takes a trip to the Monster Seats🍦 pic.twitter.com/HlBJa9el1j
— MLB (@MLB) May 8, 2025
“That is secondary to the other conversations,” Breslow said. “That decision was never going to be made on a couch in an office in Kansas City. That conversation is ongoing.
“I don’t want to spend too much time on that,” he added, answering a later question about Devers at first. “I don’t think it’s the most important takeaway here. But he’s a guy with, obviously, significant experience at a corner infield position. We feel like it would be a transition others have made, and we think he can make. I recognize it’s not that simple. These aren’t the types of moves that can be made overnight. The initial conversation Raffy and I had was of an exploratory nature.”
The first step was for the Sox’ brass was to speak with Devers and start to repair their relationship. Breslow and Devers still haven’t spoken since the designated hitter publicly called out the front office boss; they will have a conversation, and they’ll need to hash it out to truly move forward.
“That will probably be evident based on the conversation,” Breslow said. “I am anchored to acting in the best interest in the organization. That‘s the obligation I have, and that‘s not going to change. If there are opportunities for me to communicate more clearly and more frequently, I would want that feedback, and I would want to honor it. In terms of this situation, my sense is we are going to focus on what‘s most important. That‘s winning games.
“Raffy was clearly frustrated with the situation. My reaction was, potentially there was some misunderstanding on the communication or an opportunity to more clearly provide communication.”
If Devers continues to play hardball, the team has a massive conundrum on their hands: do they let him dictate what he wants to do, or do they force him to play first base? If it gets to the extreme, Devers could force himself out of town.
It’s safe to say that after Devers signed his massive extension, he hasn’t shown much interest in being the face of the organization. The media has repeatedly been vocal about the former third baseman ducking conversations in the clubhouse, deferring to other veteran leaders in the past. At this point, the Sox need him to be their first baseman and focus on playing consistent baseball. If Devers moves to first, it allows Boston to potentially add Masataka Yoshida who is on the IL into the lineup or promote phenom prospect Roman Anthony.
If all of that is going to happen, Cora will end up playing a huge role in getting Devers to oblige on the position change. He has a strong relationship with the player and should be the perfect liaison to remedy the problem. He also got a fat check from the Red Sox last season and is one of the highest paid managers in the game. Cora should be more than equipped to handle Devers and this problem. If Devers doesn’t want to be the face of the Red Sox, that’s fine; at the very least, he should be the first baseman in the short term until the front office figures out what’s best for business.
