Good news: you don’t have to pick just one person!
Three months ago the Red Sox signed all-star third baseman Alex Bregman. Generally speaking, it’s a good thing to add all-star players to your roster. And on the field thus far in 2025, it has indeed been a very good thing. Bregman has been the best player on the Red Sox and one of the very best in all of baseball, currently placing fifth in bWAR in the American League.
Complicating matters, though, was the fact that the Red Sox already had an all-star third baseman: Rafael Devers, a guy to whom they committed a lot of dough over a lot of years. And even as Bregman was smiling under the Florida sun and introducing himself to both his new teammates and to New England snowbirds in the first week of Spring Training, it seemed obvious that the Sox hadn’t fully worked out a plan to address the roster crunch that they themselves created.
Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Three months and one devastating first base injury later, we’ve got a crisis on our hands, as the deposed Devers is taking pointed shots at the front office and bristling at the idea of being asked to change positions twice in one season.
The Red Sox front office and management team are going to have to figure this out, lest it spiral out of control and threaten to ruin what began as a very promising season. That’s a hard job and I’m glad it’s not mine. Instead, I get to do something more fun: stand back and criticize them. (I mean, I’d be happy to give them credit, too, but let’s just say they haven’t forced my hand yet on this particular issue.)
So let’s belly up to a greasy diner counter, pour some stale coffee, and serve up slices of blame pie!
Who is at fault for the Rafael Devers fiasco?
Sam Kennedy
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The Devers fiasco was caused by an organizational-wide failure to communicate and plan. Sam Kennedy has done everything he can to position himself as the public-facing head of the entire organization, so he gets a big ol’ slice for that fact alone — heavy is the head that walks around all day saying “hey, everybody, check out my cool crown!”
But Kennedy doesn’t get a slice of blame pie merely for being in charge. He also gets a slice for sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong and contributing to this mess in the first place.
This has been somewhat forgotten, but it’s important to remember that, by all reports, the Red Sox front office was not in internal agreement when it came to pursuing Alex Bregman. Indeed, all winter we heard reports that Alex Cora and Sam Kennedy in particular were pushing for the addition of Bregman, while Craig Breslow was not as enthusiastic, likely because he was concerned about larger roster construction issues (prescient, Craig!)
One big question I had then and now is: why was Sam Kennedy so involved in a baseball operations decision in the first place? Baseball decisions should be made by baseball operations people only, and sorry, Sam, but having played high school baseball with Theo Epstein doesn’t make you an assistant GM.
I’m not naive enough to think that the team President and part-owner is going to be totally hands-off when it comes to team construction, especially with respect to big money free agent deals. But generally speaking, Kennedy should leave the team-building to the man he hired to build the team. And above all else, he certainly should not have aligned himself on one side or the other of any kind of baseball ops power struggle. He’s the leader of the organization; it’s his job to resolve internal disputes, not contribute to them.
Two slices for Sam.
Craig Breslow
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We don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes this offseason. But it seems pretty clear to me that Alex Bregman was at least somewhat forced upon Craig Breslow against his will. If Breslow had been the ultimate decision-maker, I don’t think he would’ve pursued Bregman precisely because of his awkward roster fit, and this fiasco would’ve been avoided. So to some extent I feel for him here.
But it’s also clear that Alex Bregman is a damn good ballplayer who has made the 2025 Red Sox a better team. And once he became a Red Sox player — regardless of who pushed for his acquisition — it then became Breslow’s responsibility to construct the roster to maximize the team’s talent and create a coherent depth chart and usage plan. He didn’t.
The fact that so many positions remained up in the air halfway through Spring Training was a problem. The fact that Devers wasn’t inserted into the first base depth chart way back in February was a problem. Breslow is at fault in both instances.
Two slices for Craig.
Alex Cora
Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images
“As long as I’m here, I want you to be my third baseman. I don’t want that talk of moving to another position.”
That’s what Alex Cora told Rafael Devers last April, after a poor defensive start to the season led many to question whether Devers was capable of playing third base for a winning team in the big leagues. Cora was publicly standing up for his guy and letting him know that he believed in his ability to improve and help the team with his glove, which is Cora’s job.
Even as the Sox pursued Bregman — with Cora publicly leading the charge — Cora continued to stand up for Devers. It was Cora, remember, who insisted that Bregman could play second, allowing Devers to remain in place. And it was Cora who not only dismissed initial reports that the team was considering moving Devers off third, but who also dismissed the need to do so:
“I haven’t talked to Raffy about [changing positions]. I have never talked to his agent about that. Obviously, people talk about his defense. Actually, I thought last year he did an outstanding job, especially to his left.”
Cora was standing up for his guy. Good! That’s exactly what I want my manager to do… to an extent.
It now seems clear that, while Cora did a great job pumping Devers up, he did a very poor job of managing Devers’ expectations. Even after the Alex Bregman acquisition (which, again, Cora pushed for), Devers believed he was the Red Sox third baseman because that’s exactly what his manager told him all along. That’s on Cora.
Moreover, like Kennedy, Cora gets some blame for getting too involved in the Bregman deal in the first place. His job is to manage the team, not assemble it, and he should not have as much sway over offseason acquisitions as he apparently does.
One-and-a-quarter slices for Cora.
Rafael Devers
Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
When it comes to disputes between labor and management, I am predisposed to siding with labor, always. This is especially the case when it comes to sports, wherein the labor doesn’t merely produce the product, the labor is the product.
I am sympathetic to Devers here. He took pride in playing third base. He worked hard at improving his defense. His immediate supervisor repeatedly praised him for putting in the work and ensured him that his job was safe, even as management was bringing in someone else who seemed likely to take it. Then, of course, they did take his job. He is bitter about that and I understand.
But Rafael Devers also needs a little a lot of self-awareness here. He was not a good defensive third baseman and would never become a defensive first baseman. The transition the Red Sox have asked him to do — first from third base to DH, and then from DH to first base — is the easiest positional transition there is in the game of baseball. He is being stubborn about doing something that would make the Red Sox better, and he is being publicly petulant about it.
Rafael Devers did not create the mess that the Sox now find them in. But he is better positioned than anyone else to clean it up. Thus far, he doesn’t seem to care.
Two-and-a-half slices for Raffy.
Chaim Bloom
Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
You inherited a team with two superstars under the age of 27. One of them was a five-tool future first ballot Hall-of-Famer who has eagerly changed positions several times throughout his career and who regularly brought food to unhoused people living on the steps of the Boston Public Library. The other was Rafael Devers. My god, man…
One slice for Chaim.
So there we have it. Who is to blame for the Rafael Devers mess? Everyone! Cool, glad we cleared that up.
And, P.S. Before you go complaining about the pie slices not making mathematical sense, bear in mind that, you know, shut up.