Legendary Red Sox DH David Ortiz weighs in on whether Rafael Devers should be open to moving to first base

Boston Globe

2 days ago

Ortiz marveled that Devers so quickly has learned to achieve the mentality and routines to excel in a DH-only role, with the 28-year-old entering Monday with a .286 average, .408 OBP, .515 slugging mark, 12 home runs, and an MLB-leading 52 RBIs.
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'He's having a hell of a season,' Ortiz said. 'I wasn't concerned about Raffy's hitting. I was more concerned about [him adapting to] the role of a DH. People think DH-ing is the easiest thing to do. If you're not hitting, you ain't doing anything. That's how you feel … And he has come through. He's doing excellent, and hopefully it continues.'
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But with Devers thriving in a DH-only role, Ortiz recognizes the delicacy of another potential position change, and the question of whether Devers (with Bregman likely out for months and first baseman Triston Casas out for the year)
Ortiz said he hasn't talked to Devers about the situation but remains aware of it.
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'I'm just watching, just to see how everything's going to end up,' said Ortiz. 'But I'm enjoying watching him just smoking the pitchers.'
Ortiz straddled the line on how the Red Sox should proceed with Devers. On one hand, he sees reason for caution given that Devers is hitting as well as any point in his career.
'He's killing it right now [as a DH],' Ortiz told reporters at Brae Burn Country Club in Newton, where he was hosting a fund-raiser for the David Ortiz Children's Fund. 'You don't want to mess that up.'
That said, Ortiz also noted that if he'd been in a similar situation, he would have volunteered to play first.
'[After] Casas went down, if I was him, I would have put myself available for anything, but that was me,' Ortiz said. '[Devers] was a third baseman that was asked to be a DH. Now, all of a sudden you want him to play first base, I guess. You have to give him some time for him to learn if you want him to, because he's doing great as a DH.
'He needs to know that he's an important piece for this organization. He's doing what he was asked [in spring training, when the organization asked him to DH]. But yeah, I think he should just think about what would be better for the organization, him at first or him as the DH, and go from there. But we have to give him some time.'
With that time, Ortiz believes Devers will come to the conclusion that he can and should start working at first base for the good of the team. Ortiz expressed sympathy for Devers as he's been bounced between job descriptions, yet suggested that the well-being of the team should be the ultimate guide.
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'At some point, you're going to mature and you're going to understand that when it comes down to being part of a club, you've got to be all-in,' Ortiz said in a separate interview on NESN's '310 to Left' podcast. 'I think he can be a hell of a first baseman, in my mind … Hopefully he understands that at some point, him being a first baseman and having some of the guys DH might be a hell of an idea and make us a better team.
'I don't know if he's working at first base right now. I think he should practice there. If he sees the team needs him or the team is better with him at first base, just go for it. He's the face of this franchise right now.'
The subject hovers over a struggling team (with manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow saying last week that conversations remain ongoing with Devers, who is signed to the biggest contract in franchise history), and with it, Devers has become something of a lightning rod.
Though Ortiz believes that Devers should be open to contributing at first — something that could open the door for Masataka Yoshida to return as DH or for other position players to be rotated in a way that might create a path for a call-up of Roman Anthony — he also believes that Devers shouldn't be seen as the source of the team's struggles.
'Everybody wants to focus on Devers. Devers is doing what he's supposed to,' said Ortiz. 'The rest of the team needs to collaborate with us. We need more Devers on the team, basically.'
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Alex Speier can be reached at