{"id":58709,"date":"2025-05-31T14:03:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=58709"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:03:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:03:46","slug":"report-red-sox-kept-alex-cora-away-from-rafael-devers-first-base-convo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=58709","title":{"rendered":"Report: Red Sox Kept Alex Cora Away From Rafael Devers-First Base Convo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Boston Red Sox leadership made a conscious decision to have Craig Breslow \u2014 not Alex Cora \u2014 ask Rafael Devers about playing first base, and the reason for that has been revealed.<\/p>\n

When Boston lost Triston Casas for the season to injury, the club suddenly faced a problematic vacancy at first base. Presumably, Breslow and Cora discussed the next steps, with a Devers move to first emerging as the best option for the team.<\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances, the following order of business would have been for the club\u2019s manager (in this case, Cora) to sit down with Devers and explain the situation.<\/p>\n

But these weren\u2019t normal circumstances, as is known to any Red Sox fan familiar with both Devers\u2019s personality and the pre-season drama surrounding his move to designated hitter.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, Boston\u2019s management decided that Breslow should be the one to speak with Devers, and the exact thinking behind this choice was unveiled in a new report from MassLive\u2019s Chris Cotillo on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, it was Breslow \u2014 and not Cora \u2014 who approached Devers about potentially moving to first base, which led to some questions about communication within the organization,\u201d Cotillo wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut one industry source recently offered that the strategy was deliberate with the Red Sox purposefully having Breslow \u2014 and not Cora \u2014 approach Devers about trying first base.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea, the source said, was that if Devers responded unfavorably to the request \u2014 as he quickly did \u2014 the long-standing, strong relationship between player and manager wouldn\u2019t be negatively impacted and the team could still have Cora preserve an open line of communication with the club\u2019s highest-paid and longest-tenured member.\u201d<\/p>\n

In essence, Breslow was willing to become the \u201cbad cop\u201d to Devers so that Cora could remain the \u201cgood cop\u201d if things turned sour (which they did).<\/p>\n

Cotillo\u2019s inside scoop is interesting because it shows the importance \u2014 and fragility \u2014 of a manager\u2019s relationship with his star players.<\/p>\n

It should be said that Devers isn\u2019t the typical star, and a more flexible player wouldn\u2019t have required the concoction of such a roundabout plan from Breslow and Cora.<\/p>\n

Another key takeaway here is that the Red Sox are clearly making steps to appease Devers, rather than double down on the notion that he\u2019s an employee under contract. Breslow and Cora had every right to demand that Devers play first base, but they went in the other direction \u2014 they merely asked him, and they did so with the assumption that they would back off if he said no, which they highly suspected he would.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the strategy every franchise would have taken, but hey, Devers is absolutely mashing right now, so he should probably just keep DH\u2019ing.<\/p>\n

Boston hasn\u2019t been completely fair to Devers this season, and Devers hasn\u2019t been a completely selfless teammate. But if he keeps driving in runs, and the Red Sox start winning, it\u2019ll all be water under the bridge.<\/p>\n

More MLB: <\/strong><\/em>MLB Writer Explains Why Red Sox Won’t Fire Alex Cora Despite ‘Palpable Anger’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Red Sox leadership made a conscious decision to have Craig Breslow \u2014 not Alex Cora \u2014 ask Rafael Devers about playing first base, and the reason for that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":58712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nReport: Red Sox Kept Alex Cora Away From Rafael Devers-First Base Convo - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=58709\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report: Red Sox Kept Alex Cora Away From Rafael Devers-First Base Convo - 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