RedSox address the media to discuss Rafael Devers trade. What did you make of the media video call?

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"Alignment"  #RedSox address the media to discuss Rafael Devers trade. What did you make of the media video call? Did Boston talk to any teams other than SF? Curtis compares the Raffy situation to Manny.

Transcript

00:00Were Devers and the Red Sox in alignment or not?

00:06You were spot on.

00:07Was there any alignment over there?

00:09They did not mention that at all last night, the alignment.

00:14Honestly, there is a great scene where Dwight has to be polite

00:19and he really can't do it successfully.

00:22So he just says, excuse me, kind sir.

00:25And it's this really awkward inability to launch.

00:30I was on that.

00:31Ken, I was banned from the press conference.

00:34I don't understand that.

00:35I was watching the whole thing waiting for your question last night.

00:39I was waiting for it.

00:41I sent the request to the group so that everyone would see that I asked,

00:45Ken, can I just get the Zoom link?

00:47I mean, like overnight hosts on other radio stations were on it,

00:51but I was not.

00:52Also, does Duke Castiglione have his own email?

00:57Or it said Jay Castiglione.

00:59Is he a Joe also and they just call him Duke?

01:03Oh, that's a good question.

01:04Or is he still on the old man's email?

01:06That's what I was trying to figure out last night.

01:08I bet that that's a nickname for another Joe.

01:11That would be my guess.

01:12But Curtis, Santo and I were watching.

01:14I said, Santo, Curtis is going to ask a question.

01:16We were on the edge of our seat every time.

01:17And also, the way in which they handled that press conference,

01:20they need one person in charge that says,

01:23you send a message saying, I have a question,

01:25and then they choose that person.

01:27Everybody trying to talk at once over and over again was not helpful.

01:31Did they awaken everybody from a deep sleep shortly before it started?

01:37Or, I mean, I'm not one to criticize what others wear.

01:40Right.

01:41I understand you're Zooming from home,

01:44but can you throw a button down on or something?

01:47I mean, I...

01:47That's a great question.

01:50We're going to run that up the flagpole.

01:52And they throw you off with the time.

01:53I was entrenched in NBA Finals pregame coverage.

01:58Yeah, yeah.

01:59But you, right again, I got to give you props on this one, big dog.

02:02Yeah.

02:03Yeah, I got to give you...

02:04I mean, I heard some of it through, you know, social media

02:07because, like I said, I was watching NBA, NBA pregame.

02:10But it seemed like, you know, based on it,

02:14I know it's just what they say.

02:15It seemed like they tried to work things out.

02:19They couldn't deal with the behavior.

02:22Yeah.

02:22And that maybe he could have been a divide in that clubhouse.

02:27I've seen that before.

02:29But at the same time, you listen to Craig,

02:32and I love Craig.

02:34I think he's a great interview, great guy.

02:36But to listen to him yesterday, go on and on,

02:39and thank you for listening, Craig,

02:40because clearly he heard Curtis say that they didn't shop him around.

02:44Craig did not like that that was a narrative yesterday.

02:47So he spent that entire press conference trying to combat that.

02:51What's that?

02:51That they didn't shop him around.

02:53He's like, you know, I heard the narrative today.

02:55Some people saying that we didn't try to shop him around.

02:58And, you know, this was the best deal for us.

03:00It still didn't make sense.

03:02He kept going back to this is not...

03:04This was the best deal for us.

03:05But I'm not going to say it's the best deal ever

03:07because maybe that wouldn't have been the best deal for us.

03:09Okay, but what does that have to do with Raphael Devers being a problem in the clubhouse?

03:16Because I think that they're trying to use every excuse to make it not about money.

03:21And I think that's what I think.

03:23And there's been problems.

03:25We've done it.

03:25There is a perfect example of a guy who is more talented

03:30and has a bigger headache in Manny Ramirez.

03:33And when the ownership group had just this one little team,

03:38there was investment from the top to the bottom where they said,

03:42no, you're going to get in line until the end of the deal in 2008

03:47and they got Jason Bay.

03:48In this case, the ownership is totally distracted.

03:53And the only reason you call a single team

03:57is to not ruffle feathers in your own clubhouse with the player.

04:02But when the player is the one requesting the trade,

04:06there is literally no excuse not to call every team to baseball.

04:09But I think the Manny situation is different

04:10because that was a better baseball club.

04:12That was a better baseball team.

04:14They were a team that they, you know, when you had Manny,

04:19you were losing in the ALCS.

04:21You had gotten to the World Series.

04:23It also wasn't a team full of young, impressionable guys.

04:27Yeah, you had Pedro on that team.

04:29Who you need to be able to show leadership to.

04:33Right, you had Veritek on that.

04:35What a last question on that, Presser.

04:36I mean, like, oh, is the reason why you're worried about the clubhouse

04:40and the culture because you've got young guys in the clubhouse?

04:43I'm sorry.

04:44Roman Anthony does not care what Raphael Devers does.

04:48I don't think that, I don't think it's, it's not.

04:50Courtney, what are you talking about?

04:51It's not giving Roman Anthony or Marcelo Meyer

04:54or all of these young guys credit to be their own person.

04:57The fact that anybody could sit there and say,

04:59Rafi Devers being upset that they want him to constantly be moving

05:02to one position or another would affect Roman Anthony.

05:05Roman Anthony is an unbelievable player.

05:07But, Courtney, I've been in the locker room where we traded away Randy Moss

05:12and elite talent.

05:16There gets a point in time and the front office, the coaching staff,

05:22feel like this guy can divide the locker room or the clubhouse

05:27where he can get, he's so influential, he can get in people's ears

05:31and be like, oh, this coach don't know what he's talking about.

05:33And the reason why I say that is because, and I can't remember,

05:38somebody might have said this on our group text message,

05:40there was no real response about Devers leaving in a positive way.

05:47I said that.

05:48From any player.

05:49I'm assuming that we will get to what Jaron Duran said during they said it,

05:55but I may have missed some of it, but I looked around social media

06:00and I didn't see any sad, gushing farewells from his teammate,

06:07who's Sedan Raffaella.

06:08I didn't see that one.

06:09I saw one post in this whole time and that was from Alex Cora.

06:12Yeah.

06:13I mean.

06:14Not one single teammate went to social media and they all have social media

06:17saying we miss you, we love you, Devers, good luck,

06:20or anything like that.

06:21No.

06:22And when you are in a clubhouse or a locker room or a dressing room in hockey,

06:28if there's that one influential voice who's been around for a while,

06:33who the front office or the coaches or ownership feels like he can start

06:37getting in the ears of younger players,

06:40which makes it the divide between player, coach, management,

06:44or however you want to.

06:45But it wasn't against management because Cora and Raffi had a great relationship.

06:49So it wasn't like a Geron Mayo situation last year where players weren't

06:53agreeing with him.

06:54No, but maybe they felt like management felt like he was going to be

06:57a bad influence when it came to the players on how they viewed management.

07:01Maybe not Cora.

07:02You don't understand the organizational system in which a,

07:07if the guy who is your highest paid employee isn't willing to do things

07:13to help out, then everybody else says,

07:15I don't have to do anything to help out either.

07:18No, I understand what you're saying there.

07:20I just think that's an awful example for a leader to set.

07:23He's not a leader though.

07:25Raffi Devers is not a leader on this team,

07:27but he should have been.

07:28Then he, then that's, that's on him.

07:30I think Curtis, I mean, that's what he was paid to be.

07:33No, he was paid to hit.

07:34He was given $30 million.

07:35He was, he was given the most money,

07:37$30 million that they've ever given to any player because they expected that a

07:42part of what he would do would be leadership.

07:44No, they gave him that money because he's one of the best hitters in baseball.

07:49And he, after the worst start we've ever seen has been one of the top five hitters

07:54in baseball.

07:54You win five straight, you sweep the Yankees.

07:57If I had said Monday morning, if everything had not,

08:01if there was no Devers trade of any kind, they land in Seattle.

08:04And I said, you know what?

08:05They should trade Devers this morning.

08:08You guys would laugh at me if that didn't happen.

08:10And now, because the organization did it, we now fall in line and say,

08:15he was about to make everybody on the team turn into Carl Everett.

08:18I think it was a bad move.

08:19They were all going to be these Neanderthals.

08:20I think it was a bad move.

08:22You still think it was a bad move.

08:23I still think it was a bad move.

08:24But after listening to them, I understand.

08:26My man said it best.

08:28One of the best coaches that I've ever had in the National Football League.

08:33And Bill Parcell said it at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

08:37And I think this is what was part of it, just from listening to some of the things that they talked about.

08:43When Parcell said, losers assemble in little groups and complain about coaches and players and other little groups,

08:51but winners assemble as a team.

08:53So what that means, and I've been in this situation before.

08:58What that means is there's a guy who's so influential in that locker room,

09:04he gets the ears of the younger guys or the other players, and then they go,

09:10you know what, management is doing us dirty.

09:12Management did you dirty.

09:13That's fair.

09:14And so what ends up happening is you have a guy that's not willing to, you know,

09:19conform to the way they want to run things, and they have to make a decision.

09:23Could he potentially get the ears of so many guys, not that you necessarily have a mutiny on hand,

09:31but you have guys second-guessing or questioning every decision that could be coming down.

09:36What's more likely to happen, that Devers continued to hit,

09:40maybe not at this incredible pace that he'd been on recently,

09:43but he gets you 40 home runs, he's a top 10, he's got 150 RBI.

09:47Is that more likely, or Devers is here and he turns everybody into a douchebee?

09:53Not everybody, but he affects...

09:54No, what's more likely, that he's a negative influence on the clubhouse,

09:57or he hits 40 home runs with 150 RBI?

10:00I think it's more likely that he has a negative influence on the clubhouse,

10:05and you have seen it from the outside without knowing it for the last couple of months

10:10based on their performance.

10:12Right, and they seem to have figured it out.

10:14I mean, for a week and a half, maybe.

10:17And you want to talk about Manny and saying it was a different team.

10:19In January of 06, he demanded a trade again.

10:22The team in 2006 missed the playoffs, won 86 games.

10:27Right, but how did they do in 05, 04, 03?

10:2905, they didn't win a playoff game, they got swept by the White Sox.

10:31But they made the postseason.

10:3204, they won a World Series, right?

10:34It was a complete...

10:35This team is in the basement for the past four years.

10:38I understand.

10:39Entering 07, they had not won a playoff game in the two preceding years,

10:43and Manny was still a cantankerous a-hole.

10:47Yet, they stuck with him.

10:49Right.

10:49And they won a World Series because the ability superseded the fear of who he was in the clubhouse.

10:56Right, but your talent.

10:57You had Big Papi who came into his own.

11:00That was, you said 07, right?

11:0307.

11:04No, Pedro.

11:04But you had...

11:06Was Schilling still there?

11:07Oh, no, you had Beckett.

11:08I believe it was Schilling still there.

11:09Yeah, Schilling, who was an issue in the clubhouse.

11:11But what I'm saying is you still had a legitimate...

11:14Beckett wasn't a leader he had just gotten there.

11:16No, no, no.

11:16I'm saying you had a legitimate, talented, World Series contender.

11:21This team is not that.

11:22But did he sully Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury?

11:25No, but I think you had enough voices in that room.

11:28What you're saying is he would be...

11:29I mean, to me, it's simple.

11:31It's a baseball player.

11:32It's the least team sport of all the team sports.

11:34And if you have someone of Devers' talent, you don't get rid of him on a five-game win streak.

11:38I agree.

11:39Can I also just say, I give credit to Craig Breslow because he owned up to how it was handled in the beginning of Bregman coming in.

11:45I thought his answer about that when he was asked, you know, do you wish that maybe you had handled it differently?

11:50Or if you did handle it differently, maybe we'd be in a different situation today.

11:54And he says, I think about that all the time.

11:56I thought that it was very, very well said the way he put it.

11:59And clearly they know they screwed up when they brought Bregman in.

12:02They didn't screw up about bringing Bregman in.

12:04They screwed up about how they handled Rafi with that situation.

12:07And they know that he probably lied to him.

12:08Yeah.

12:09Don't you think that Craig Breslow blames Cora for that, though?

12:12I don't know.

12:13But I think that they all told him.

12:14I think Sam does.

12:15I mean, Sam was somewhat defensive on that.

12:18He requested a follow-up.

12:20Yeah.

12:21Because he wanted to make it clear, I think, that they could never be in alignment.

12:26Right.

12:26I don't know, Curtis, if you heard that at all, but there was no alignment.

12:29Great question, Greg.

12:30I think they got to the point where they tried to be, and Devers was like, no.

12:35They were trying to get to alignment, and they just, it is elusive.

12:39We couldn't find alignment.

12:41Alignment is elusive.

12:42So, we will get to talk to Craig Breslow himself about all of these things at 9.30 on this morning's show.

12:52Awesome.

12:53So, Craig Breslow, the Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox, will join us at 9.30 this morning.

13:00This is Zach, who is calling from Rhode Island.

13:06Zach, good morning.

13:07Good morning, guys.

13:09First time, long time.

13:10I mean, I just got to say, I really appreciate all the happiness that you guys bring me on my hour-long commute to work.

13:16Oh.

13:16I've been listening to you for years.

13:18So, thank you guys very much, Zach.

13:22First thing, I don't normally do this, but I got to agree with Wiggy.

13:26I think that the reason they got rid of him, even though they don't want to say it's about the money,

13:32I think it's because he's going to create an atmosphere in the locker room where if, oh, well, he doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want to do that.

13:39And now all those younger guys are going to start saying, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that.

13:44So, I think that's why they got rid of him.

13:46They don't want to have that kind of atmosphere in their locker room.

13:49But, I mean, I could be wrong.

13:51No, I think you're right.

13:52I think if you want an example of how it may affect the young guys, and I don't know how it affected the player specifically,

14:03but maybe at some point we'll find out, but Raphael Devers was apparently bothered that Christian Campbell volunteered to give first base a try.

14:13Yeah.

14:14Like, how is that good for an organization?

14:18Like, now you're basically telling a young guy, wait a second, you're going to do something good for the team that's going to make me look bad?

14:26We don't like management.

14:28We don't like ownership.

14:29Like, every workplace has one of those people, and they just destroy the joint.

14:34And no matter how...

14:35It's not an actual workplace.

14:37And who's had a better role on the team this year, Christian Campbell or Devers?

14:42Who would you rather have, all things included?

14:44I would rather have Devers, but no matter how talented a player is, that then divides a locker room.

14:51And that becomes the biggest issue.

14:53And that's why, when I bring up the Parcells quote, that's what he means.

14:58And when it's your superstar player who's doing that, it really is a difficult decision.

15:03And the fact that I say it's not about the money, because if this wasn't an issue, do they trade him?

15:10But they still couldn't point to a specific situation.

15:12No, no, no, but what I'm saying is...

15:14If he was making $8 million, is he still on the team?

15:16No, no, no, but listen to me.

15:17Can you answer that?

15:18If he falls in line, do they trade him?

15:22No.

15:22Of course not.

15:23So then it's...

15:24No!

15:24So then my point is, it's not...

15:26No, Wiggy, if everything is the same, and he's making $8 million...

15:29Curtis, Curtis, I'm not arguing with you.

15:31Yes, of course they keep him for $8 million.

15:33But that does mean money.

15:35It's both.

15:35No, no, no, no, no.

15:36Can it be both, though?

15:37It can't.

15:37I'm not saying it can't be.

15:39How is he still here?

15:40What I'm saying is, the attitude is the ultimate decision maker when they go,

15:47do we get rid of him, or do we continue to pay him?

15:51And the attitude is where they go, we have to move on no matter how much...

15:55Wiggy, you have it backwards.

15:56We agree.

15:57The attitude's the problem.

15:58And then the deciding factor is the salary.

16:01Are they willing to swallow $8 million?

16:04Yes.

16:04$300 million?

16:05No.

16:06That's why he's gone.

16:07Because they made that clear about this being the best deal for them.

16:12They wanted to offload that money.

16:14And so it does come down to money.

16:16I'm not saying it doesn't.

16:17The point I'm trying to say is the attitude is the bigger issue than the money.

16:21Yeah, I think that the best point made this morning was, like, I wish that Craig and Sam

16:26said it the way Greg did, where it was just, they made a statement for the rest of the team

16:32that it's team first.

16:34And Rafi not doing that...

16:35They did say that, though.

16:36But they said it in a different way.

16:38Well, at one point, Craig Breslow said essentially those things, that they have an identity that

16:46they are interested in, a culture that they are interested in, and an environment that

16:52they are interested in.

16:54And something, his exact quote, I think, was, something was amiss.

16:58Something has been amiss with this team.

17:01And they identified that, I guess, as being caused by Raphael Devers.

17:05And he said it, we've been going, we've been dealing with this since spring training.

17:09They were, if, this is why I said, if the attitude by Devers wasn't so, in their opinion,

17:18completely off, they were willing to work it out.

17:21They were willing to pay him $28 million to $30 million to basically DH.

17:27Or, and just say, hey, every now and then, if we got to throw you out there, or at least

17:32take ground balls for us.

17:33Right.

17:34But he wasn't willing to do that.

17:35And I think they got to the point where they said, you know what?

17:39The attitude's too much.

17:40Yeah, we can save some money initially.

17:43But if you don't spend that money, then people are going to criticize you.

17:47Well, you said the same thing when they said they were in on Soto and they didn't spend

17:50the money.

17:51You said they have to spend it.

17:52And they didn't.

17:52Right.

17:52But then they went out and they signed Bregman.

17:55They went out.

17:56A fraction of the money.

17:56But I know it's a fraction of the money.

17:58And then they went out and they paid crochet.

17:59So between those two guys, but it's still $300 million between two guys.

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