A week after Rafael Devers vented his frustrations about potentially being moved off third base this season, the Red Sox’ star infielder stressed that his stance hasn’t changed.
But as Alex Cora and the Red Sox mull their options following the arrival of Gold Glove third baseman Alex Bregman, Devers also added that he isn’t looking to be a distraction during spring training.
“I feel like I said everything I needed to say that day,“ Devers told MassLive’s Chris Cotillo through translator Daveson Perez on Tuesday. ”I still feel the same way. “I’m not frustrated. I don’t have the need to be frustrated about anything with anybody … My family is good.
“My kids are good. I have no reason to be frustrated about anything. I don’t listen to what’s said. I don’t pay attention to what is said. I just know what I’m capable of. I’m happy being this way.”
Devers raised some eyebrows with his candid comments last week about his spot in Boston’s infield — pushing back against assertions that he’d shift to DH in order to slot Bregman over to the hot corner.
“Third base is my position,” Devers told reporters. “It’s what I’ve played. I don’t know what their plans are. I know we had a conversation. I made it clear, kind of what my desires were and whatever happens from here, I don’t know.”
When asked what he would say if the team insisted that he play DH to accommodate Bregman, Devers responded,” No.”
He was then asked to clarify through Red Sox staffer and translator Daveson Perez.
“Like I’ve been saying, it’s my position and I’m not just going to change on a whim,” Devers said, as transcribed by The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey.
On Tuesday, Devers questioned as to why his comments have become the most discussed piece of discourse through the first week-plus of spring training.
“I really don’t know why this is becoming such a big story,” Devers told Cotillo. “We’re a team and we communicate with each other. I think the most important thing is us to have a good chemistry together. Like I’ve always said since Day 1, the most important thing for me is that we win. That’s where I stand.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Cora stressed that the current plan is for Devers to remain at the hot corner — although those discussions remain fluid.
“We’re preparing Raffy to play third base,” Cora told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier on Tuesday. “We’ll keep talking to him and we’ll keep talking to [Bregman]. There’s a lot of things going on at second base right now . . . [Devers] feels he’s the third baseman. We’ve seen him before. So he’s preparing to play third base.”
At first glance, shifting Bregman to third and moving Devers elsewhere seems like the ideal configuration for Boston’s infield defense.
While Bregman took home Gold Glove honors in 2024 with the Astros, Devers has led the AL in errors at third every single season since 2018.
But speaking to Speier, Devers said that he’s yet to have a conversation with Cora about how the team might be better off with him taken off third.
“I haven’t had those conversations at all. I like to focus on the reality. I don’t want to think about what’s not right in front of me,” said Devers. “I haven’t had any conversations with him, so I don’t know how to answer that question. But we have good communication, so if they want to talk about it, we can.”