Is Rafael Devers living up to his contract? How is Devers as a leader/teammate?

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What quote from Alex Cora this week struck a nerve with Greg? Thoughts on Cora/Rafael Devers/3B/etc.? Devers situation impacting this team? "Not having it" Is Rafael Devers living up to his contract? How is Devers as a leader/teammate? #MLB

Transcript

00:00to aj from cranston here in rhode island aj good morning good morning what's up guys love you guys

00:08listen every day thank you uh earlier greg you brought up a good point about rap you not being

00:15a team player and he's got he's not being a team player and witty i just wanted to point out you

00:20said that paying him 35 million dollars to be a hitter that that's not true man when he signed

00:25that contract he was also a third baseman you know what i mean so to say they just pay him 35

00:31million dollars to just hit the ball i don't think that's an accurate depiction at all like he's not

00:36being a team player he's like if he was willing to play the field that would give cora the flexibility

00:41to not have to put as many players on a position and you know i i don't think paying him 35 million

00:50dollars to just hit the ball he's being paid being paid that much to be a team leader to be the face

00:55of the organization the face of the franchise and he he's not living up to his end of the bargain

01:00aj thank you thank you so my lead this morning was alex gora was asked about raphael devers playing

01:07third base maybe even given first base a try to help out here in a pinch uh and alex gora said

01:14that he's this is a quote he's not having it meaning the discussion about it i guess right

01:22um i i like like that is that's not a guy that i want as the face of my franchise going forward

01:30a guy who's not gonna is not willing to have a discussion right about helping out when the team

01:36needs it and i get you disagree completely oh yeah you and courtney disagree completely right

01:41uh but it's wiggy it's it's the exact opposite of what you want in a leader and a guy who is the

01:48face of your franchise he's not having it yeah i i mean i'm not disagreeing with you that you know

01:54he isn't being a team player but i'm saying that they did him dirty and clearly he's being petty yeah

02:01they did him dirty and i still believe how do they do to do something because i i how do they do

02:06somebody dirty that they're paying 35 million dollars i'm telling you i believe that they told him

02:11he was going to be able to still play third base even with bregman yep i believe that and i think

02:17he was under the uh assumption that he'd be the third baseman and maybe bregman would play second

02:23and that was you know where he wanted to play and then when he gets the train uh spring training

02:29he kind of sees the writing on the wall is like oh they just told me that to keep me quiet and keep

02:35me happy also then you have to remember the beginning of the season and how much he struggled at dh

02:39and how how ridiculed he was over and over again now that he's figured it out they're going to say

02:43oh wait no sorry we actually want to put you back right third for you to struggle there and then it

02:48be it's that's what's that that's what would happen i think that we all agree i think that devers

02:55should be acting in a better way when it comes to what the team needs and i will say no matter what

03:01you think of devers he is unmovable he is on the team for another 10 years at 300 million dollars

03:07this is alex cora's number one job description and this is what alex cora signed up for when he

03:14was so public in his desire for alex bregman to come to this team right and so it's on his lap and

03:21that's why i think he's getting sort of ornery with the media because it's his problem that he has

03:27to figure out and he can't force a guy to move he said he would take care of it obviously breslow

03:34and cora had very different beliefs about what to do when casas got hurt and cora knew that devers

03:42was not going to like being asked to go back and play the field i'm not excusing it i'm just living

03:47in the reality and i feel like this is the issue right now is that cora can't figure this out and i

03:53think it may be on him because they're not going to be able to get rid of devers right this doesn't

03:58work and the person that you he needs to blame is the guy he looks at every day when he wakes up

04:05is the man in the mirror because if he jumped on this from day one right when they were getting

04:10ready to sign bregman and saying to devers and saying hey listen hey listen you're not going to

04:16play third base we're not bregman's better in our mind we're not going to have you so they

04:22they gave him the opportunity he was unavailable by the way in spring training no no but because

04:28he was he was he was throwing a hissy fit but cora should he was he was they signed bregman cora

04:33should have said devers you're not playing third base like it that day they signed him you've seen

04:37the way you've seen the way he's reacted now you think he would have said yep no i don't know i don't

04:43think he might have went kicking and no he might have went kicking and screaming but guess what

04:47he eventually went to the dh and he he found his role and he said okay i'll do that but yeah he's

04:53but great just be upfront and honest with him no once you sign the guy and you don't have this

04:59problem if he is the face of your franchise you should be upfront and honest with him because

05:03wiggie's right if you did this when you first signed bregman everything moves forward quicker

05:08yes so yes he goes kicking and screaming but that happens at the very beginning of spring training

05:12if we get a better devers when it comes to dh at the beginning of the season he is bothered by the

05:18fact he thinks he should be the everyday third baseman on this baseball team bregman here or not

05:24he is right so even if you did what you're suggesting in spring training when bregman went down

05:31and you asked him to help out the reaction would have been the same from the guy he is he's it's just

05:39and i get it he's an unbelievable hitter i get it right i people last night i bring it up to people

05:44last night at the landing and they're like he's got 50 rbis like i like leave him alone like sorry

05:50that's not what i the baseball team stinks right now right they they're nowhere near what the

05:57expectation was in the division right or in major league baseball so you need people to jump up and help

06:04out a little but this is the issue with the team if he is the face of your team you're not a

06:08championship oriented team and if he's the guy that is your most you know important player he is

06:15not someone that will sacrifice for the betterment of the team but he's not the problem even if you

06:19put him at first base and he goes to first base it's not going to change what the team is it the

06:24first baseman there's been a couple errors you get wiki when you when you do that you get his bat

06:29in the lineup and you add another bat in the lineup right like you understand yeah but who's bad in

06:34the lineup are you talking about all right so you could still put roman anthony in the field

06:38you can have roman anthony come up with devers dh and roman anthony's bat is still going to be in

06:44the lineup you all you have to do is move sedan rafael at a second base like you people are it what's

06:52what is like maddening to me is no one wanted him to play third base he doesn't want to play first

06:58base because he probably knows he's not going to be very good at it and everybody was like

07:02devers just go to dh and hit the ball that's all we care about during spring training yes he went

07:08kicking and screaming and it was him being petty but he eventually went there he settled into his

07:15role and now he's great this is joe in the car joe good morning good morning good morning hey man

07:23i'm on your side this is why i hate baseball that's why i don't like baseball baseball players are the

07:30most overpaid egotistical like prima donna's i've ever seen in my life and of course my man wiki of

07:42course athletes can't do no wrong to this guy died i mean you got guys that bring guns at airports

07:50he supported the antonio brown now he's behind stephan zigg like wiki this is a team sport buddy it's a team

08:00sport they need damage right now more than anything just because they said something in the beginning

08:07things change that's like hill man being out for a weekend they're gonna have to fill his seat and if they go to you we can say

08:14hey wiki we're gonna need you to fill greg hill's seat what are you gonna say oh man no way you guys

08:20can pay me enough you don't pay me enough to do greg hill's job what are you gonna do

08:25but that's an upgrade joe that's an upgrade if they said hey wiki we need you to go do um

08:31saturdays at you know one to four that's that's here that's curtis curtis and kenner right here

08:38yeah but no you know curtis does this five days a week no but here's what i think it is an upgrade

08:45according to devers his own words for him to have the position that they're asking him to play

08:50like we've gone full circle here he wanted it was an insult to be asked to be a dh now it's an insult

08:56to play third it's an insult to have him move over and over he's like that's what happened they've had

09:02injuries all over yeah but we agree he's being petty right and he's being petty because of the way

09:08they handled it in the beginning i agree and if you would have just handled it better in the

09:13beginning maybe he's not this petty but the thing is even if he's playing third but even if

09:18bregman gets hurt people would probably still be you're better off putting meyer there because he's

09:25a better third baseman than than devers it's just and and when joe brings up sports and baseball yes

09:33baseball is a team sport but it's an individual team sport because when you're at the plate it's

09:38about you and nobody else yep and so that's the difference when you look at baseball all right

09:44this is mark from rhode island mark good morning hey good morning guys hey i want to defend devis

09:50on this a little bit i kind of agree with wiggy and courtney on this the team had so many holes in

09:55the off season to fill and they chose to fill the face of the franchise and replace his position

10:01reluctantly he went to dh as much as he didn't want it he succeeded then when casas went down

10:06they asked him to play first base which he didn't want to do the team told him he was going to be a

10:11third baseman and signed into a 300 million dollar contract and then changed the terms of the contract

10:15and asked him to move positions i think he is a team player and now he's being a stick in them

10:20stick in the mud by not by not going over to back to third base he shouldn't they asked him to just do

10:26something he did it and now he's doing it for the team and he's being successful at it

10:30the team messed this up in the off season by signing a third baseman to replace the face of

10:35your franchise that you chose was going to be the future it's on the team the team created this

10:39problem and corner can't handle it but but bingo if they if they were going to pay me 35 million

10:46dollars they could pierce my nipples and lay me out in the middle of center field and i do i would do

10:52willingly and delightedly yeah that's that is not an image i would be delighted about that's you

10:59though i understand go ahead one more thing it's very interesting to me when we talked to alex

11:05corer we talked to craig breslow and and we brought up the fact at first base okay so what what's the

11:10plan or what about devers at first base they said oh yeah maybe but we don't want to he's he's starting

11:15to figure out dh we don't want to mess with his schedule or mess with the way in which he's prepping

11:19or his day-to-day so now you're telling me you're ready to do that at third base and then when

11:24bregman comes back he's got to go back to dh and figure it all out again right great point courtney

11:29well uh it is more of the cluster f that is currently the boston red sox and you can talk

11:35about that all day long here on boston sports original weei

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