Latest news with #RafaelDevers'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Veteran Red Sox players displeased with Devers drama: Report
Veteran Red Sox players displeased with Devers drama: Report originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston Rafael Devers' refusal to play first base and his public complaints about chief baseball officer Craig Breslow apparently didn't sit well with some of his Boston Red Sox teammates. Advertisement After Thursday's 5-0 win over the Texas Rangers, Devers called out Breslow and the Red Sox front office for asking him to replace the injured Triston Casas at first base. The three-time All-Star third baseman took issue with the club wanting him to switch positions after he already reluctantly moved to designated hitter before the 2025 season. According to Christopher Smith of who was among the reporters in the clubhouse for Devers' comments, some Red Sox players were unhappy with how Devers handled the situation. 'One reporter told me, though, that one of them said to 'just stop talking,'' Smith said during an appearance on Foul Territory. 'We also at MassLive learned that a couple veteran players, players that have been around the league a long time, were not happy with the situation with (Devers') inflexibility and also the way that he brought it out publicly. … 'As I said, I didn't hear that player directly. That's what I was told. A couple reporters were talking about it. But yeah, we've also heard at MassLive there was players that weren't happy about it.' The Devers drama comes at a less-than-ideal time for a Red Sox club still looking to find its groove. Boston is a mediocre 20-19 on the season despite playing one of the league's easiest schedules thus far. Luckily, the rest of the American League East has been just as unimpressive, so the Red Sox are only two games behind the first-place New York Yankees. Advertisement With Devers unwilling to play first base, the search for a Casas replacement will continue. The Red Sox still could move one of their current players to first base or call up one of their top prospects to learn the position on the fly. However, it appears more likely they will look outside the organization for positional depth. For now, Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez will split time as the Red Sox' first basemen. Toro will get the nod for Friday's series opener against the red-hot Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
NBC Sports
09-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Devers tells Red Sox he won't move to first base
James Schiano unpacks Rafael Devers' talks with the Boston Red Sox, breaking down news of the three-time All-Star telling the team he won't switch from third base to first base.
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Rafael Devers' terrible 0-for-19 start making wrong kind of MLB history for Red Sox
Rafael Devers' terrible 0-for-19 start making wrong kind of MLB history for Red Sox Show Caption Hide Caption Orioles' Gunnar Henderson reveals how Jackson Holliday prepares for MLB season Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson has been sidelined with an injury, but he reveals how his young teammate, Jackson Holliday, has been training in the offseason. BALTIMORE — It is barely April, and we're still in the throes of Panic Season around Major League Baseball, when flailing superstars and slumping teams manage to set off alarm bells even as their sample sizes remain astoundingly small. Yet for as much as players and fans and managers are conditioned not to assign undue import to the start of a season, there's never been a five-game start as astounding – statistically, and circumstantially – as Rafael Devers' grim 2025 beginning. Monday afternoon, as the Baltimore Orioles rolled out their orange carpet and heralded their home opener, Devers and the new-look Boston Red Sox aimed to find the individual and collective rhythms that eluded them in losing three of their first four games at Texas. Instead, nine innings later, the Red Sox were left with another defeat and Devers fell deeper into a hole of historic futility. BRAVES: Jurickson Profar suspended 80 games for violating MLB's PED policy He struck out three more times on Monday, leaving him 0-for-19 on this young season, with 15 strikeouts. No batter in major league history has struck out as much in the first five games of their season than Devers, who surpassed the Chicago Cubs' Ian Happ (14 strikeouts in his first five games of 2018) for most punchouts to start a season. But at least Happ had a base hit to his name. Devers has outdone both him and former Houston Astros slugger Evan Gattis, who in 2017 set the previous high for strikeouts – 12 – in a five-game hitless stretch to start a season. Devers' downslide follows switch to DH, Bregman signing Happ and Gattis certainly didn't have a cloud of spring training controversy pass over their heads like Devers, who famously was shifted to designated hitter after the Red Sox's February signing of Alex Bregman to take over third base. It was a move that challenged Devers' pride, since the Red Sox did not sign him to a $313.5 million contract extension to swing the bat four or five times a game. But Devers got on board by the end of spring training and assumed his customary No. 2 spot in Boston's deeper, daunting lineup. And then proceeded to swing and miss. A ton. He punched out 12 times in four games against the Texas Rangers, part of an 0-for-16 start during which the Red Sox lost three of those games. Monday, in a ballpark he's practically owned (13 homers, an .868 OPS in 55 career games), perhaps things might have been different. Instead, Baltimore's No. 5 starter, Cade Povich, walked him in the first inning and came back to strike him out in the second. And then caught him looking at a sinker on the outside corner in the fifth, before lefty reliever Keegan Akin got him to flail at a changeup in the seventh. Devers did draw walks in the first and ninth, the latter plate appearance giving some hope to Red Sox manager Alex Cora, simply because Devers had an encouraging-looking foul ball, down the left field line, against Orioles closer Felix Bautista. Yeah, it's to the point they're trying to find some daylight in a hopefully predictive foul ball. YANKEES' TORPEDO BATS: What to know about controversial new bats The rhythm of baseball's early-season schedule will allow Devers to think about his 0-for-19 a little more, with an off day Tuesday. Or not think. Or relax. Or get mad. Something. 'I never change the way I hit. I'm still aggressive,' says Devers through a translator after the Orioles held on for an 8-5 victory, dropping Boston to 1-4. 'Maybe I'm thinking too much on the plan, on what the pitcher might throw. Otherwise, I feel very good.' Grinding for answers in the cage also isn't Devers' MO. 'I'm trying to not hit that much. I try to focus on the game,' he says. 'I feel like when I hit too much, I tend to think even more, so I'd rather simplify things, pay attention to the game and do my hitting during the game.' And, preferably, get some hits. Red Sox manager downplays Devers' slump It's certainly out of character: Devers is a career .278 hitter with a .344 OBP, and has hit between 27 and 38 homers the past five full seasons, inspiring the Red Sox to lock him into that extension. He was slowed during spring training by pain in both his shoulders and unwittingly stole some headlines with the position flap. Cora and Devers insist neither are factors now. 'It's not the shoulder. It's not the DH thing,' says Cora. 'He was very vocal about it a few days ago. The shoulder is fine. Now, it's a matter of keep working hard and getting to the point of hitting the ball out in front. It's a little behind. 'As you know, Raffy's superpower is left center. He's never been a pull hitter, except in certain venues. When he drives the ball to left center, that's when you know he's locked in. 'He's going to keep playing. He's going to hit second for us. He will hit, there's no doubt about it. It's just a matter of when.' Of course, that's what they said before leaving Texas. Typically, Devers is the most feared dude in the lineup when his name's in there. Monday, there was a grim sense of inevitability to Devers' plate appearances, as Orioles pitchers sped him up and slowed him down. Devers the third baseman never opened a season like this. Devers the DH is still emerging, not that he feels extreme adjustments are in order. 'I feel comfortable with the routine I'm doing right now,' he says. 'This is not a position I've done in the past so I need to get used to it. I feel good, I feel the team is playing good baseball. 'It's just things aren't going our way. I think those things are going to change, for sure.' With just a few days scratched off the season calendar, Cora isn't about to consider drastic measures, such as a lineup switch, a day off or a come-to-Alex session. Yet he's open to anything that might get his slugger off the schneid. 'It's like kids, right?' he says. 'Sometimes you leave them alone so they can think about it, other times you call them into the office. Sometimes we eat, have a drink or something like that. 'There were some positives today.' Yet still a .000 on the scoreboard.
Fox News
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Red Sox's Rafael Devers brutal start to MLB season results in unfortunate history
We are just a few short days removed from MLB's 2025 Opening Day, but Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers' strikeout trend is already raising some concerns. The Red Sox's designated hitter made 12 plate appearances over Boston's first three games of the season. While he failed to record a hit during any of those at-bats, his 10 strikeouts made some rather unfortunate history. That volume of strikeouts represented an unprecedented rate in the first three games of any MLB season on record, USA Today reported. Devers' early regular season struggles come on the heels of a tense spring training. During the exhibition period, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Devers appeared to be at odds about whether he would spend time on the baseball diamond covering third base. Shortly before Opening Day, Cora confirmed Devers would handle the team's designated hitter duties on a full-time basis. The Red Sox season has been less than ideal so far — albeit through just four games. The 2025 campaign did get off to a promising start as Boston celebrated a 5-2 season-opening win over the Texas Rangers. However, the Red Sox proceeded to drop their next three games, falling to 1-3 on the young season. Former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom previously described Devers as a star, and the franchise is paying him like one. Devers inked a contract with the Red Sox worth $313.5 million in Jan. 2023, ESPN reported. He finished last season with 28 home runs and had a .272 batting average. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
