- 6/20/2025
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SportsTranscript
00:00Because the Sox are in town, and Rafi Devers gets to face his old club right away.
00:05Now, this is kind of like the passive version of these, the homecoming thing,
00:11because obviously this game is not in Boston.
00:15I do think there will be, as usual, when the Red Sox or the Yankees
00:19or the Dodgers or whatever come to town,
00:22that team will be well represented in the building by many of their fans.
00:26And so it will be interesting to hear what it sounds like when Devers comes to the plate.
00:31But the bigger thing for me today, two things.
00:34A, the Boston media is in town.
00:36You need to hear some of the interaction that just took place.
00:38And number two, I would invite all of you to go read, and it's a lengthy read,
00:45put aside a good 15, 20 minutes, but go read the inside scoop,
00:50the feature story that Jeff Passan just wrote on ESPN
00:55with regard to how the trade of Rafi Devers all came together.
01:01And I know it won't be the first time you've heard this this week,
01:04but to me this was more kind of like the final straw.
01:08This was the final stamp.
01:11My God.
01:12My God.
01:14The Red Sox bleeped this up so bad.
01:18Oh, yeah.
01:19It is unbelievable.
01:21I want each and every one of you Giants fans,
01:24if there is a tiny little piece of you that's worried about the idea
01:29that Rafi Devers is a bad teammate,
01:33grab it out of that back pocket, crumple it, find a trash can,
01:39shoot it, make it, leave it in the trash.
01:43That's the end of that.
01:45You have got to go learn the back story of what took place here.
01:50And let me just say this.
01:52If I were a fan of a team that conducted itself the way the Red Sox
01:58have conducted themselves, quite frankly, for the last five years,
02:01I would question my fandom.
02:04I might be a free agent.
02:06It is for a major brand like that to act this petty
02:11is absolutely unbelievable,
02:16especially in the wake of having sent star after star after star
02:21already out of town.
02:23So as a Giants fan, I'm super thankful that this time it's the Giants
02:28who will take advantage of this rather than the Dodgers.
02:32This time it's the Giants who get to take advantage of this joke
02:36more than the Dodgers.
02:37So I don't, like I'm not offended, this is not my team,
02:41but it's stunning.
02:42It's unbelievable that a team would treat its star asset this way.
02:50Absolutely wild.
02:52The manager of the team told him,
02:54do not bring your glove to spring training.
02:56You will not need a glove.
02:59You don't need a glove.
03:00And he was not happy about that, but they tried to tell him,
03:04no, no, no, you will not need a glove,
03:06and we're going to massage that whole thing.
03:09And then the second that the season started,
03:12and he finally acquiesced to what he didn't want to do,
03:16then they told him to go get a glove.
03:18Yeah, get a glove.
03:19Because somebody got hurt.
03:21I just, can you imagine, just think of the headline,
03:25that best player's gone because you didn't ask for him to change his position
03:36at the right time?
03:38That's got to be the stupidest reason I've ever heard of
03:41for you to get rid of your best player by any franchise.
03:45Well, and you did it in the worst possible way,
03:48and then you had to go kind of crawling back to him.
03:51And he could have just said, all right, you know,
03:53we'll let bygones be bygones, and I'll play first base.
03:56But when you handle it the way they did,
03:58where don't even worry about bringing a glove,
04:01not only that, but you don't really give him a heads up
04:04that he's going to lose the position that he's had the entire time
04:06he's been with the club.
04:08He won a World Series at third.
04:10He's still a third baseman.
04:12He's not a great defender, but a wonderful hitter.
04:15And he's been there in the organization for 12 years,
04:17since he was 16 years old, out of the Dominican.
04:20He's only been a Sox his whole career.
04:23And then you do it like this.
04:25You don't let him know that you're bringing in his replacement.
04:27And then you tell him, don't worry about fielding.
04:30You're not going to need to field.
04:31Just show up with your bat in some cleats
04:33and a couple of batting gloves.
04:35You can bring batting gloves,
04:36but not the gloves that you use to catch the baseball.
04:39And then you go back to him and try to get him to play first.
04:41I could see where he'd be so fed up that he would want out.
04:46Let me pass this along, okay?
04:47So the Boston media just met with Rafi.
04:50And all of the questions you'd think,
04:53why did you suddenly come to San Francisco
04:55and tell them that you would play anywhere they want you to play?
05:00Why wouldn't you do that in Boston?
05:03He was asked,
05:05hey, if the Red Sox had just come to you
05:07at the start of spring training and said,
05:11would you please play first base?
05:14What would you have said?
05:15He said,
05:16I would have agreed.
05:18But it didn't happen that way.
05:22Yeah.
05:22So I'm a Giants now.
05:24Exactly.
05:24And then,
05:25remember when Jimmy Butler got here
05:27and Buddy Heald
05:28even did,
05:30you know,
05:30one of their great performances together
05:32at the press conferences.
05:33Buddy kind of made fun of this.
05:34Remember when he started doing the air quotes thing,
05:37but he didn't know what it was called?
05:38The two fingers.
05:38Yeah.
05:39He called it two fingers.
05:41The two fingers.
05:42The air quotes was around Jimmy Butler's joy.
05:45The audacity.
05:46Right.
05:46He goes,
05:47remember,
05:47Jimmy needed to get his joy back
05:50and he was doing the two fingers.
05:52And he's like poking and prodding at Jimmy,
05:55like,
05:55oh,
05:56Jimmy,
05:56Jimmy lost his joy
05:57because they wouldn't give him a hundred million dollars.
06:01Yeah,
06:01but Jimmy,
06:02Jimmy said that upon arrival with the Warriors,
06:05he's like this,
06:06right?
06:06He said he was happy
06:07and then he played great.
06:09Very similar vibe
06:10to Rafi Devers today.
06:13He repeatedly said
06:15that he did not want to talk about the past,
06:17but when asked,
06:18when was the last time he was this happy?
06:21Quote,
06:22it's been a long time.
06:24I feel happy.
06:26I'm relaxed now.
06:28Now,
06:29if Rafi Devers,
06:31his OPS was over 900 when he was unhappy.
06:34What's he going to do now that he's relaxed and happy?
06:38That makes me pretty excited to see what will happen next.
06:41Yeah.
06:42I don't know how long it's been since he was happy.
06:44He said a long time.
06:46I don't know if that goes back to 2018 when they won the World Series
06:49or if it just goes back to maybe last year when he got to play third base.
06:53And so this year he didn't get to play third and he wouldn't play first.
06:56And so he's just DH-ing.
06:57And maybe he,
06:59it's not that he dislikes DH-ing, I'm sure,
07:01but just the cloud that was over his year with Boston this year
07:05where you're not playing third anymore
07:07and you didn't want him to play first in spring training,
07:11so he didn't bring a glove.
07:12And then the guy gets hurt,
07:13ruptured patella,
07:14patella tendon,
07:15which is really bad.
07:16So now we need you to play first.
07:18It's like,
07:18you're jacking me around.
07:20That can't make you happy.
07:21And now,
07:22first thing he says here is,
07:23yeah,
07:23I'll play anywhere.
07:24Just tell me.
07:25Tell me when.
07:26And tell me how.
07:27And I'll go out there and do it.
07:29You know what no one knows about this?
07:30Do you want to know why the Red Sox eventually wanted him to be DH?
07:34Because here's like the,
07:36I'll try to summarize this quickly.
07:38Yes,
07:39Devers knew they were having a conversation with Bregman.
07:42But they told Devers,
07:44ah,
07:44doesn't look like it's going anywhere.
07:47So,
07:48we promise you,
07:49if it's going to go somewhere,
07:52we will call you,
07:54and we will talk to you.
07:55We will let you know.
07:57We promise you.
07:58Then Rafi found out on social media
08:01that Bregman was a Red Sox,
08:05and Devers had a conversation with the Sox about,
08:08okay,
08:09if you're going to do that,
08:10like,
08:11I do want to play some third base.
08:13That kind of keeps me active,
08:16I feel like,
08:17and engaged.
08:17It'll help my at-bats.
08:19I don't need to play every day,
08:21but maybe a couple days a week.
08:23And they're like,
08:24okay,
08:25we hear you on that one.
08:27All right,
08:27thanks,
08:28Rafi.
08:28Off they go.
08:29We'll get back to you.
08:30Then,
08:30then,
08:31there's a young kid
08:33that pops up,
08:34and they decide,
08:36oh,
08:36he might be ready for the bigs this year.
08:38Let's put him at first base.
08:40Boy,
08:40all of you Farhan haters,
08:43do you want to know
08:44why Rafi Devers
08:45ended up at DH
08:47for the Red Sox?
08:51Permutations
08:51and calculations.
08:53That's what led the,
08:56this is what blew me away.
08:58They ran a bunch of simulations.
09:00Yeah,
09:01the models,
09:01they love the models.
09:02The models.
09:03Yep.
09:04Spit out,
09:05oh,
09:05your best way to do this this year
09:07is going to be for Rafi to be the DH.
09:10So then they went to him
09:11after all the things
09:13they had said to him and promised.
09:15And they went,
09:16hey, Rafi,
09:16see this,
09:18see this,
09:18we got an Excel doc here.
09:21And,
09:21uh,
09:22yeah,
09:23it says you'll be our DH.
09:25Once again,
09:26human interest goes to die
09:28and now your best player is gone.
09:31It's unbelievable.
09:32When are they going to learn?
09:34It's all about humans.
09:36You're human beings playing
09:38an actual game.
09:39All the spreadsheeting
09:40and the modeling in the world
09:41cannot replace
09:42what you probably should have,
09:44which is the human touch.
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