<\/p>\n
Dustin Pedroia spent his 14-year MLB career with the\u00a0Boston Red Sox, but he could understand why\u00a0Rafael Devers\u00a0seemed bothered by the signing of Alex Bregman last offseason.<\/p>\n
Speaking to WEEI\u2019s Rob Bradford\u00a0on the \u201cBaseball Isn\u2019t Boring\u201d podcast, the former Red Sox second baseman admitted he was caught off guard as to why\u00a0Boston signed second baseman Yoan Moncada\u00a0two years after Pedroia signed an eight-year extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t worried about it because I had a full no-trade clause and (couldn\u2019t) care less.\u00a0But I did care,\u201d\u00a0Pedroia said. \u201cYou know what I mean? You care as a player. I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m doing all I can here to help us win games.\u2019 And\u00a0instead of spending $(31.5) million on a second baseman, let\u2019s go spend $(31.5) million somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a player, you\u2019re thinking in your mind like, man, I thought I was their guy. I thought they loved me like I love them,\u201d\u00a0he later added. \u201cBut that\u2019s an emotional reaction right away. And I guarantee you, Raffy had the same reaction when we signed Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moncada\u00a0was traded in 2016 to the Chicago White Sox\u00a0in a package for Chris Sale.<\/p>\n
After they signed Bregman,\u00a0Devers made it clear he didn\u2019t want to be the team\u2019s designated hitter\u00a0and didn\u2019t want to give up third base. Devers began the season as the DH and struggled to find a groove before finding his footing at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018I\u2019ve been here, I won a World Series. I\u2019ve hit 30 home runs and this and this and this, and then all of a sudden we go spend $40 million on a third baseman,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Pedroia said. \u201cThat\u2019s a human reaction, that\u2019s human nature. That\u2019s life, that\u2019s baseball, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Devers had the opportunity to get back on the field when Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury in May. The Red Sox approached Devers about playing first base,\u00a0but he declined.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had the conversation with me,\u201d\u00a0Devers said. \u201cI don\u2019t think for me personally it\u2019s the best decision after they asked me to play a different position and I only have two months of playing this position. To all of a sudden have me try to play another position. \u2026 From my end, it doesn\u2019t seem like a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they stay true to their word,\u201d\u00a0he added. \u201cThey told me I was going to be playing this position, DH. And now they are going back on that. So yeah, I don\u2019t think they stay true to their word.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Red Sox\u00a0elected to trade Devers\u00a0two years after signing him to an 11-year, $331 million extension. He got a fresh start in the Bay Area. He even\u00a0played 28 games at first base.<\/p>\n
The way Devers handled everything doesn\u2019t make Pedroia think less of the former Red Sox infielder. He understands it\u2019s unfortunate, but knows baseball is a business at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I would love to see Raffy finish his career as a Red Sox and have that smile on his face and hit 30 home runs for 20 years, which he\u2019s probably going to do,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cBut sometimes it doesn\u2019t work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dustin Pedroia spent his 14-year MLB career with the\u00a0Boston Red Sox, but he could understand why\u00a0Rafael Devers\u00a0seemed bothered by the signing of Alex Bregman last offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n