With just weeks to go in spring training, it sure seems like the Boston Red Sox have already reached a decision about who will handle third base this season — whether Rafael Devers likes it or not. While Devers continues to work his way back from the shoulder discomfort that cut short his 2024 season, Bregman has been busy showing exactly why the team was so smart to land him in free agency, slashing .385/.412/.692 with a homer and six RBI over his first five exhibition games while looking every bit like a reigning Gold Glove winner at the hot corner.
But it's not just on the field where Bregman is lapping his competition. From pretty much the moment he put on a Red Sox uniform, the two-time All-Star has been doing all the things you'd expect a veteran champion and clubhouse leader to do. And as camp rolls on, and more and more of Bregman's new teammates fall in line behind their new infielder, it's becoming obvious which big-name third baseman the Red Sox should be catering to.
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Alex Bregman just keeps giving Red Sox more reason to hitch their wagons to him rather than Rafael Devers
Monday should've been a day off for Bregman, with Boston traveling to take on the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota — the sort of hour-plus bus ride that veterans hardly ever make during spring training. And yet, there Bregman was, more or less pleading with Alex Cora to put him in the lineup anyway. Not because he needed to, but because he didn't want to turn down the chance to play with some very important pieces of Boston's future.
The Red Sox were slated to have all of its Big Three prospects in the lineup on Monday, and Bregman jumped at the chance to share the field with infielders Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer and outfielder Roman Anthony. Even if the young guns poked a little fun at him in the process.
“Marcelo and Roman were giving me a hard time and asking me if I even had any gray pants in my locker,” Bregman told MLB.com.
While a 90-minute trip and a few innings of baseball may not seem like much, it speaks volumes about the place Bregman already occupies in the clubhouse, and just how willing he is to see the bigger picture and put his franchise first. As does the response from his own manager.
“It’s important. He understands what comes with the contract,” Alex Cora said. “People focus on the opt-outs and all that, but he’s all in. He understands that they're a big part of not only what we’re trying to accomplish this year, but in the future.”
And the prospects themselves have also taken notice. While veterans like Triston Casas have been standoffish at best in camp, Bregman is going out of his way to take them under his wing, and it seems like they'd all run through a wall for him after just a few weeks.
“Yeah, he's the man,” said Mayer. “I mean, we were talking about it, me and Roman, and we noticed that the veterans don’t normally come out to road games a lot, so we were giving him a little bit of crap. And he's like, ‘Dude, I'll go to the next one. Like, let's go hang out on the bus.’"
Contrast that with Devers, who can't be faulted for being behind schedule due to injury but very much can for how little he's done so far this spring to shepherd what should by all accounts be his clubhouse. And yet, Devers has spent far more time advocating for his own preferences than helping the guys who could help him finally get to the World Series. It's no wonder that Boston is leaning towards giving Bregman the third-base job; if they're smart, they'll give him whatever he wants as he makes this team his own.