The Boston Red Sox have a huge hole at first base left by the absence of injured star Triston Casas. Casas suffered a knee injury and underwent surgery earlier this month. He’s likely to miss the entire year.<\/p>\n
The answer is obvious, right? The Red Sox should play Rafael Devers at first base, right?<\/p>\n
Wrong.<\/p>\n
Instead, they’ve turned to infielder Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro to man the spot. Neither is a spectacular hitter, and the decision has Red Sox fans scratching their heads in confusion.<\/p>\n
That begs the question: why isn’t Devers playing first base?<\/p>\n
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray\u2019s work on\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently broke down the fact that first base isn’t as easy a defensive position as it seems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different now at first base,\u2019’ said Cora. \u201dIt\u2019s not just \u2018play three feet off the bag and cover first\u2019; you\u2019re involved in every play. (There\u2019s) relays, picks because the other (infielders) are playing a lot different than when we played. We used to play straight up and it was an easier throw. Now, there\u2019s a lot of short hops coming from different positions. So it\u2019s not as easy a position as people make it seem.\u201d<\/p>\n The way Cora views first base from a defensive perspective could be the reason he’s not willing to play Devers there, right?<\/p>\n Well, in his seven year big league career, Toro has played 99 innings at first base while playing over 2,000 innings elsewhere. Gonzalez has played 178 2\/3 innings at first base (85 2\/3 this season) compared to over 800 innings elsewhere. These two have far from a lot of experience playing the position.<\/p>\n Devers is a natural third baseman who’s played over 8,000 innings in the field during his big-league career. He might not be a star defender, but he’s more than capable of holding his own, especially if the Red Sox gave him a chance to learn the position.<\/p>\n This would free up the designated hitter slot for a player like Roman Anthony, who’s banging on the door of the big leagues right now.<\/p>\n At a certain point, the Red Sox will need to maximize their lineup. Playing Devers at first base, even if it comes with growing pains, will be the best route to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Boston Red Sox have a massive hole at first base and won’t use the easiest solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy won’t the Red Sox play Rafael Devers at first base?<\/h2>\n