The Boston Red Sox have found themselves in the middle of a lot of drama this season, and it's all stemming from one man: Rafael Devers.
Once the Red Sox signed free agent Alex Bregman, Devers declined the idea of moving off third base. After some discussions and the Red Sox not budging, Devers accepted the move which allowed Bregman to man the hot corner and Kristian Campbell to play second base.
Following a scary injury to Triston Casas, the Red Sox have found themselves with a massive hole at first base. The obvious answer would be to move Devers to first base and open up the DH slot for a player like Roman Anthony, the team's top prospect.
But Devers seemingly shot this idea down when asked about it. Rather than accept the move, learn the position, and do what it takes to win baseball games, Devers publicly aired out his grievances with Boston and the team's general manager.
And it seems like the clubhouse is beginning to turn on him a bit.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.
Red Sox seemingly at odds over Rafael Devers drama
Christopher Smith of MassLive recently reported that an unnamed Red Sox player had told Devers to "just stop talking." This could be interpreted in a few different ways. The first could be the unnamed player telling Devers to stop talking because the things he's saying are hurting the team and bothering teammates.
But the more likely option is that the unnamed player is telling Devers to quit talking because his words are being skewed and used against him and the team as ammo.
Either way, the situation is frustrating. The Red Sox, the fans, the players, the media, and everybody involved seems fed up with the situation. Nobody likes drama and Devers has seemed to bring a lot of it with him this season.
It's not like Boston is asking him to play catcher. They're not asking him to learn how to play outfield. They're simply asking him to fill the hole at first base that was left when his teammate suffered a brutal, season-ending injury. And they're paying him over $300 million to do something like this. It doesn't need to be a whole ordeal, but here we are.