Red Sox brass flew to Kansas City to tame the Rafael Devers situation on Friday.
Owner John Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met the team on the road as a feud between the star third baseman and front office escalated this week, according to multiple reports.
Earlier this week, Devers, who reluctantly moved from third base to designated hitter before the season started following the Alex Bregman signing, said he wasn’t willing to move to first base after the Red Sox lost Triston Casas to a season-ending injury.
“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” Devers said through a translator, according to the Boston Globe. “In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH.
“So right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”
Devers appears to be clashing with Breslow, specifically, after questioning if he had a problem with him when talking to reporters earlier this week.
“I’m not certain what [issue] he has with me,” Devers. “He played ball, and I would like to think that he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy.”
Breslow told MassLive’s Chris Cotillo that Henry and Red Sox manager Alex Cora spoke privately with Devers on Friday.
“We felt like it was important, based on the situation that unfolded yesterday, to come out here and have an honest conversation about what we value as an organization and what we believe is important to the Boston Red Sox,” Breslow said. “That being great teammates for each other.”
Devers’ teammates reportedly aren’t thrilled with the three-time All-Star’s actions of late.
His postgame tirade on Thursday elicited “not positive” reactions from teammates in the clubhouse at the time, according to Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald.
