Red Sox DH Rafael Devers’ refusal to play first base has “created a rift between the team and its highest-paid player,” according to Peter Abraham of the BOSTON GLOBE. Devers has “acted as if he had been asked to donate a kidney,” even though “far better players have changed positions to help the team out.” Devers is an employee, something his agents “may want to mention to him.” But the Red Sox “created a bit of monster” when they handed Devers a $313.5M deal. He has since had “little to do with team promotional or charitable events.” Devers accepted the kind of contract that “makes you the face of the team,” but he “avoids that role as often as possible.” So this “seems sure to end badly.” Devers “will get booed during the next homestand” and he will “withdraw even more.” He is signed through 2033 but “now the clock is ticking toward some kind of rancorous breakup” (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/10).
LONG ROAD AHEAD: THE ATHLETIC’s Jen McCaffrey wrote to label Devers’ situation “as a mess would be an understatement.” The team has “angered its franchise player,” whose contract does “not have a no-trade clause.” They also “don’t appear to have a long-term solution at first base for the rest of this season, with only a platoon of utility men Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro currently filling the spot.” The Red Sox “messed up this situation royally from the start of the offseason, not telling Devers they planned to pursue a lineup upgrade that might move him off third base.” This “latest blowup doesn’t appear to be dissipating anytime soon” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/10).
