Seems like Rafael Devers does not want to switch positions again.. What is going on behind the scenes with Raffy? Is there a divide?
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00:00This is David in the car. Hello, David.
00:04Hi, good morning, everyone. Great show as always. You guys make my morning bright. Awesome. Thank you.
00:10You know, I don't understand Rafael Devers, and I understand his positions, this and that.
00:15The greatest face of the Red Sox, play first base whenever needed.
00:20The first thing Rafael needs to understand is that DH is not a position, because it doesn't exist on the Nationals.
00:26So, if you have the opportunity and you're asked to play a position.
00:31It does now. It does now on the Nationals.
00:31It does now, okay. I apologize.
00:34So, but my thing is, if you have the opportunity to play first base, why wouldn't you?
00:39And, Wiggy, I'm sorry. I respect what you say. You are a football player, and I remember watching you live at the, you know, not Gillette, Foxboro Stadium.
00:51But the thing is, yes, you're getting paid $30 million, suck it up, be a team player, play whatever position you need to help the team, and don't be a crybaby, and stop saying, nope, because it doesn't work anymore.
01:04I mean, that seems to be, so far this morning, the general consensus on the Subaru of New England text line.
01:11Which is, they just asked you, could you step up and help the outfit, as Joe Biden would refer to it?
01:20Can you help the organization? Can you step up and be a company guy and do a little extra here?
01:26I mean, that seems to be the general consensus, and the answer is, nope.
01:30But the issue is, see, here's what people don't get.
01:32Like, and if you have never played a professional sport, it might be hard to understand it.
01:39Right. We have not, all of us, everybody listening, everybody on this show, none of us have played a professional sport.
01:44Well, David has played soccer, so he's a former professional athlete.
01:48So there are some people out there.
01:49Correct.
01:49So if it.
01:50Let me limit the people that can disagree, and now I'll make my cry.
01:53No, no, no. It's not about disagreeing.
01:54The fact that you are a third baseman, right, and that's the position you came up in, and people were criticizing you about how bad you were and how you weren't good at it, and it took you some time.
02:09Maybe you did have some struggles, but that's the position.
02:11And then they want you to move to a position where maybe you know, if I struggled at third base, I might be even worse at first base.
02:21And what's the criticism going to be towards me as a professional athlete?
02:26And to move him right when he starts, like, kind of hitting his stride.
02:30Like, at DH, he was not good in the beginning.
02:32We talked about it over and over again.
02:34People wanted him out of here, and he's kind of starting to figure it out.
02:37And now that he's figuring it out, they're going to move him again?
02:39Right, because something happened.
02:40Egos are a major thing, but egos are a major thing in sports, and we know that.
02:44He does not want to go to first base and be so awful where he's getting criticized and ripped to shreds, and that affects an athlete's ego.
02:54Yeah, he won't be getting criticized today all over the city of Boston all day.
02:59Yeah, and he got criticized so much that he played third base for six years.
03:03But he played third base coming up probably his whole career when he was a young kid.
03:07I mean, everybody moves around in Little League, but once they found this position, that's the position.
03:12Like, you can't bring – don't even bring up Big Papi.
03:15Big Papi was a first baseman.
03:17So the fact that he might go over there and be like, you know, I'm going to struggle.
03:21I don't even want to deal with that.
03:22I'm comfortable at the DH.
03:24They didn't want me to play third base.
03:25This is where I'm at.
03:26Now they want me to play first?
03:27I'm not doing it.
03:28Here's a text from New Hampshire.
03:30Hello and good morning to New Hampshire.
03:32And we have two roadshows this roadshow season for you.
03:36One in Hampton Beach and the other in the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee at the dive on July 3rd.
03:45And you can check the entire roadshow schedule on our social media, on Instagram and elsewhere.
03:52But the text says the fact that the concept of even having to ask him is an issue is a problem.
04:01That's how I feel.
04:02Like, the fact that Rafael Devers is pissed that Craig Breslow dared to ask him if he would mind helping everybody else on the team out is bogus.
04:17And this is not something that the organization would have done if not for the season-ending injury to Casas.
04:24Like, it wasn't their plan to beg him to get off the third and accept the DH role and then tell him to move again.
04:32This happened.
04:33It was just something that occurred in the course of a Major League Baseball season.
04:37And his reaction reveals an awful, awful lot about who he is as a guy on the roster.
04:45Yeah, it might reflect who he is character-wise.
04:49So why are you defending him?
04:50No, because before, I'm defending his opinion on why he doesn't want to move.
04:58But before Casas got hurt, everybody was like, leave Devers alone.
05:02Why would you want to put Devers at first base?
05:04He stinks at third.
05:05He's going to stink at first.
05:05Find somebody else to do it.
05:07Now, all of a sudden.
05:08Literally, no one said that.
05:09Yeah, that seems like a straw man to me.
05:10No, it's not a straw man.
05:11Literally, no one said, don't put Devers at first when Casas was healthy.
05:14Nobody even brought up the idea of putting him at first.
05:16And when we were talking about this whole thing for moving Devers off a third base and figuring out, should he go play first or should he DH?
05:23That was really back in the spring where we were saying.
05:25But even when Casas was struggling, we were talking about whether should they move Roman Anthony there?
05:32Should they move Marcelo Mayer there?
05:35Mayer.
05:36Should they move Christian Campbell there?
05:38We were talking about all the people and everybody was like, we'd rather move those other guys than Devers.
05:45And listen, in a perfect world, Curtis, like obviously he would say, yes, I'll do anything for the team.
05:49I'm not, I'm not, just because I disagree with the way in which we're painting Rafael Devers, I don't agree with what he is doing.
05:58Like in a perfect world, yes, he says to Craig Breslow and Alex Cora, of course, I'll do whatever you guys want.
06:04But we don't live in a perfect world.
06:05So this is the reality of the situation.
06:07So I'm just trying to give the opposite side of what might be going through his head.
06:11Oh, no, I, I know what's going through his head and it's all about him and not about the team.
06:15And that's not something that I would respect.
06:18It's all about, it's being pissed off that they dared to tell you, you weren't going to play third base.
06:23And now, you know, from his mind, he's going, well, now you're coming back to me and you want me to play first base.
06:32Sorry.
06:33Right.
06:33You didn't want me to play third.
06:35I'm not playing first base.
06:36Like, get out of town with that.
06:37And the other thing, Greg, is that thanks to Breslow yesterday, this all came to the surface and this is why they've all been dancing around it because they know how pissed he is about even the prospect of playing the position.
06:48But what stood out to me most, I listened back to Breslow last night, he, he said that he is still taking grounders at third base.
06:58And when I asked if he'd used the first baseman's mid, he said, no, he's just practicing with his third base at third base, not at first.
07:06Why are they giving into that?
07:08Well, it's not that giving it to him.
07:10If he is to play the field this year, it is not going to be third base.
07:15That's been clear in Bregman's one game absence for the birth of his child.
07:18But here's the thing, Curtis, Devers said this yesterday, and this leads me to believe, and this is the other window that you have to get into the world of how.
07:27So, and all sports at every level, but especially at the professional level where people in the front office and coaches and managers lie to you because he made it seem like they lied to him about playing third base.
07:41They told him to, and we'll get to the audio soon, but his argument is they told him to put the glove away.
07:49So, there are texters who say this is all on Craig Breslow.
07:52Yeah, you can't lie to a guy.
07:54But they didn't lie to him.
07:56Things change.
07:56Like, the situation changes.
07:58He said they were dishonest in what they were telling him.
08:02No, he...
08:02So, is that not lying?
08:04No, Wiggy, it's not lying because at the time, when Cassis was healthy, yeah, they had zero intention of putting him in the field.
08:09But come to find out, there's injuries and things change and situations change.
08:14Let me ask you this question.
08:14It's not lying if something changes.
08:16Let me ask you this question honestly.
08:18Do you think they told him when they signed Bregman that he would have an opportunity at third base?
08:24When they signed Bregman?
08:25Yes.
08:25No.
08:25They told him no.
08:27Bregman's job.
08:27Stop.
08:28Stop.
08:28That's why he was so pissed about it.
08:30No, stop.
08:30He was pissed because they probably told him, like, listen, you're going to get a chance, Rafi, at third base.
08:35And they were dishonest with him there.
08:38They were dishonest with him about the DH at first base.
08:41So, how is that not lying to the guy?
08:44Right.
08:44And Devers was dishonest when he said he wanted the team to get better.
08:47And then when you...
08:48No, he was honest about the team getting better.
08:50But he don't want it to get better.
08:52If you want it to get better, he should go to first.
08:54Stop it.
08:54Let me just get John on this quick.
08:56Hey, John, what's up?
08:59Hi, guys.
09:00I think it comes down to a pretty simple principle.
09:03If you want to be on a team in a team sport, what you do is may hurt your ego, may hurt you, but helps the team win.
09:12And it seems simple when you play a team sport.
09:14That's what you do.
09:15Yep.
09:16I could not agree more.
09:17I agree with that.
09:18Could not agree more.
09:18Well, then don't lie to people.
09:20Well, how about that in sports?
09:22You know how many athletes have dealt with it?
09:24Be honest, and I believe part of this is pettiness because he was lied to about the third base position, whether Schein wants to believe it or anybody else wants to believe it or not.
09:34When they brought in Bregman, they probably said, hey, we're going to give you an opportunity at third.
09:38They lied to him about that.
09:39That made him pissed.
09:40So he fought to get his opportunity and then eventually threw his hands in and goes, you know what?
09:47All right, F it.
09:47I'll DH.
09:48Schein was lied to about who's going to be the next pontiff.
09:51Yeah, yep.
09:52Just straight up lied to.
09:54Outsourcing on that.
09:55I know.
09:56Can't trust the Italians, I guess.
09:57Dude wasn't even anywhere on your top ten.
10:00Look, man, I did my research.
10:03I was grinding tape on those pontiff probables, and he was just nowhere to be found.
10:07He wasn't on the list.
10:08It was like back in the Baker Mayfield draft when everybody was like, yeah, he'll be like the fifth quarterback off the board.
10:14He ended up going number one overall.