{"id":575933,"date":"2026-02-16T18:10:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:10:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:10:50","slug":"tom-werner-rafael-devers-should-have-just-picked-up-a-glove-and-played-first-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/575933\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Werner: Rafael Devers should have ‘just picked up a glove’ and played first base"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Devers\u2019 unwillingness to play first base<\/a> after Triston Casas<\/a> suffered a season-ending knee injury<\/a> last year didn\u2019t sit well with Tom Werner<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to speak ill of any player. I\u2019d like to say that he\u2019s a wonderful person,\u201d the Red Sox chairman told The Boston Globe<\/a>. \u201cBut, of course, when we had an injury at first base his unwillingness to play that position was extremely discouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devers was taken off third base after the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman and moved to the designated hitter spot in Boston\u2019s lineup. He initially said he didn\u2019t want to move from the position he played for his entire career, but Devers eventually agreed.<\/p>\n

He was beginning to find a groove after a slow start at his new position. But then just over a month into the season Casas ruptured his patellar tendon<\/a>. The Red Sox approached Devers about returning to the field, but he declined. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a discouraging episode,\u201d Werner said<\/a>. \u201cJust pick up a glove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devers expressed his displeasure about Boston asking him to play first base after he was told in spring training to put the glove away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m a ballplayer but at the same time they can\u2019t expect me to play every single position out there,\u201d Devers said last year<\/a>. \u201cIn spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove \u2014 that I wasn\u2019t going to play any other position but DH. So right now I just feel like it\u2019s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”<\/p>\n

Devers was ultimately traded to the San Francisco Giants<\/a> in June. He played 17 games at first base<\/a> for his new team and said he\u2019d \u201crather be on the field<\/a>\u201d because it\u2019s a way to keep him active. <\/p>\n

Going into 2026, the Red Sox find themselves with questions at third base<\/a> once again. Bregman departed Boston after one season<\/a> and signed a five-year deal with the Chicago Cubs<\/a>. Boston traded for Caleb Durbin<\/a>, who played 131 games at third in his rookie season with the Milwaukee Brewers last year. Marcelo Mayer<\/a> can also play third, as can Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael Devers\u2019 unwillingness to play first base after Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury last year didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[2514,5,2515],"class_list":{"0":"post-575933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-2514","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-wspix"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116081661278230265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}