Manny Ramirez feels the Red Sox did Rafael Devers dirty.
The Boston legend says the Sox humiliated Devers by asking him to switch positions from third base to DH before ultimately dealing him Sunday night to the San Francisco Giants.
“Devers was humiliated [by the Red Sox],” Ramirez told MLB insider Héctor Gómez. “It’s not about pride or ego. I think the team didn’t respect him or communicate with him properly. I’m sure they didn’t do that to [Roger] Clemens. I can’t imagine the Yankees telling [Aaron] Judge, ‘Now we’re moving you to catcher.’”
When Boston acquired third baseman Alex Bregman during the offseason, they asked Devers to move to DH.
“Third base is my position,” Devers said publicly after the move.
When first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury, the Red Sox asked Devers to take over at first, which he allegedly refused to do.
Stuck at a standstill, the Red Sox traded him to the Giants after sweeping the Yankees Sunday night.
Another Red Sox legend, David Ortiz, said he tried to get messages to Devers about how to handle his time in Boston, but Devers never responded.
“You can’t imagine how many times I wrote to Devers trying to give him advice, but unfortunately, he has communication problems,” Ortiz said, via Gomez. “He almost never returned my messages, but I don’t blame him. He’s a good guy, but he definitely needs to improve his communication. He should find an advisor to help him with that.”
Ortiz defended Devers in February over the Bregman situation.
“You are not talking about just another ball player, you are talking about Rafael Devers, the current David Ortiz type player the Red Sox have,” he said. “Listen to me, that’s the team’s best player. Bregman might have better defensive numbers, I’ll give you that. But you are not talking about a ‘Mickey Mouse’ type of player, you are talking about Rafael Devers.”
On Monday, Gomez posted that Ortiz added:
“There are baseball players who think they’re bigger than the game, and the game is over 100 years old. What f---ing company pays you $300 million to do whatever you want. They’d tell me ‘jump’ and I’d jump; ‘roll’ and I’d roll, that’s why I’m a Hall of Famer and in Boston they love me because I was an employee. This is a business, it’s not your house, it’s not about what you want or don’t want, this is a business that people have to put their clothes on to fight for and respect. Devers could have been the face of the Red Sox franchise.”
Devers, 28, is batting .272 with 15 homers, 58 RBI and a .905 OPS.
The Red Sox once featured Devers, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts but now have none of them. They dealt Betts to the L.A. Dodgers in 2020 and Bogaerts to the San Diego Padres in 2022.
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.