Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
The Red Sox enter Tuesday having split their past four after a five-game losing streak and still sit four games under .500, in fourth place in the AL East, as one of the bigger disappointments this season. Some misguided souls out there, including myself, predicted them to win the division. Instead, they haven’t been more than three game over .500 all year and they’ve fallen as far as 9 ½ games back of the Yankees.
Though Abraham Toro has recently hit well, the Red Sox have still gotten below league-average production at first base this season. Triston Casas is out for the season. They are (were?) trying to teach rookie Kristian Campbell first base but might be pulling the plug already, and he has struggled at the plate in the majors as it is. Romy Gonzalez just returned from a quad injury, and while he’s been good when healthy this season, that’s not a guarantee.
There’s an easy and obvious answer sitting right there: Rafael Devers. We’ve all heard plenty about it for weeks and there seems to be a lot of public sentiment in favor of Devers refusing to play first, just as he initially balked at leaving third base during spring training.
I do think the Red Sox have completely botched the entire situation and that back in the spring — when they correctly decided Alex Bregman would take over at third base — they should have taught Devers first base. Being thin at first is the fault of the front office, not Devers.
I also think he should be a lot more open to trying to help his team in any way possible. David Ortiz agrees with me.
“[After] Casas went down, if I was him, I would have put myself available for anything, but that was me,” Ortiz said this week (via the Boston Globe). “[Devers] was a third baseman that was asked to be a DH. Now, all of a sudden you want him to play first base, I guess. You have to give him some time for him to learn if you want him to, because he’s doing great as a DH.
“He needs to know that he’s an important piece for this organization. He’s doing what he was asked. But yeah, I think he should just think about what would be better for the organization, him at first or him as the DH, and go from there. But we have to give him some time.”
No, first base isn’t easy, though it is the easiest defensive position. I’m sure some people consider it incredibly hard. It is less difficult than playing third, though. There’s a reason that first base is typically the last position that big-time sluggers see before becoming a full-time designated hitter. “Easiest” doesn’t mean “easy,” but let’s not kid ourselves.
Why is there so much defense of Devers? Why does he act so offended that his team asks him to do things?
He’s already gotten his huge contract (10 years, $313.5 million), so a move of positions won’t affect his future potential earnings. Don’t give me this “injury risk” stuff. It’s first base. There’s an injury risk doing anything in sports and playing first doesn’t increase that. If a player is a good enough athlete to stay at third base in the majors for eight years, he can learn first base.
There’s some notion floating around that star players shouldn’t be asked to do something like change positions. I thought about Hall of Famer Ernie Banks shifting from shortstop to first base in the middle of his career. But that was a long time ago and players have more agency now in their moves, right? Fair enough.
Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza tried his hand at first base late in his career. It didn’t really work. That can happen.
When did it work?
Another Hall of Fame catcher, Joe Mauer, made the transition after being forced off catcher due to concussion issues.
Alex Rodriguez shifted to third base to leave Derek Jeter at short, but he was moving to a new team and probably wanted to create the impression that he would be a good teammate and also wanted to help facilitate the trade.
How about current players who didn’t change teams?
Aaron Judge moved to center field for the Yankees last year. Is that a big enough name? Jose Altuve this season moved from second base to left field. Left field in Houston with the Crawford Boxes jutting out is much more difficult to learn than first base and likely carries a greater risk of injury. We’ve seen Juan Soto flip back and forth between right and left field. Manny Machado manned shortstop before landing his big contract and then the Padres moved him back to third after signing him. Bryce Harper has transitioned to right field to first base, though that was necessitated by injury at first.
How about Devers’ former teammate, Mookie Betts? A perennial All-Star and former MVP, Betts was one of the best defensive right fielders in baseball, but a need arose in recent years and he first started popping up at second base before taking over the position on a semi-permanent basis. Then he moved to shortstop, the most difficult non-battery position on the field. Then he moved back to right field. This season, he’s the everyday shortstop.
We’re talking about a marquee player, one of the biggest names in the league who has a gargantuan contract, and he is fine with moving from a spot where he had grown quite comfortable to middle infield positions, and back, and then back again. He never complained.
Do we even need to keep going with examples? The Betts one should seal things. If he can do all that, why can’t Devers just grab a first baseman’s mitt and at least try?
So, sure, the Red Sox botched the Devers situation from the start. I suppose he has every right to refuse attempted assignments from his team (do we “normal” people have the right to tell our companies they aren’t allowed to change our job description, by the way?), but I just can’t get behind acting all aghast at the audacity of the Red Sox for suggesting maybe Devers should help his team by trying to learn first base. They can ask. And he should say he’ll give it a shot. Plenty of other stars do it.
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