The Rafael Devers situation in Boston appears to be growing more toxic by the day.
Christopher Smith of Mass Live appeared Friday on the “Foul Territory” podcast. During the episode, Smith reported that some veteran players on the Red Sox are not pleased with the three-time All-Star Devers’ recent comments about the team.
“One reporter told me that one of [Devers’ teammates] said [for him to] ‘just stop talking,'” said Smith. “We’ve also at Mass Live learned that a couple players — veteran players, players who have been around the league a long time — were not happy with the situation, with his inflexibility, and also [with] the way that he brought it out publicly.”
The report comes a day after Devers caused a stir by claiming that the Red Sox lied to him over the offseason. Devers alleged that the Red Sox, particularly executive Craig Breslow, told him that he would no longer be playing in the field from here (as the longtime third baseman Devers shifted over to designated hitter this season in order to accommodate new signing Alex Bregman).
However, Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this month, and Breslow then supposedly approached Devers about the possibility of playing first base (a position that Devers has never played before in the bigs). As a result, Devers felt that he was lied to and went public this week to express his unhappiness. You can read the full comments that Devers made here.
Now it appears that there are multiple Red Sox players who feel that Devers, 28, should have kept his complaints in-house. While Devers is the longest-tenured player on the Boston roster and is signed through 2033 as a part of a 10-year, $313.5 million extension he signed with the team before the 2023 campaign, his situation with the Red Sox is threatening to only get messier from here.
