Bill Russell is the GOAT.
Ted Williams is the GOAT.
Bobby Orr is the GOAT.
Tom Brady is the GOAT.
At least in my house.
Rafael Devers has become the latest goat to graze upon the Boston sports scene.
No, he’s not “Greatest Of All Time.”
At least not yet.
Rather, he’s simply the goat — as in scapegoat.
The patsy.
The fall guy.
The Bill Buckner.
The Red Sox’s failure to meet their lofty preseason expectations has now been laid at the Alpha Huarache Elite 3 Mid cleated feet of Little Papi.
State-Run Media told me so.
So it must be true.
Trevor Story’s slash line of .231/.275/.341 heading into Tuesday’s game against the Mets?
Blame Devers for not wanting to play first base.
Fenway Park awash in blue and orange for the visiting Metropolitans?
Blame Devers for not wanting to play first base.
Brayan Bello allowing 19 walks and 34 hits in 31.1 innings?
Blame Devers for not wanting to play first base.
Kristian Campbell’s 4-for-51 slump?
Blame Devers for not wanting to play first base.
Tanner Houck’s 8.04 ERA, with 57 hits and 10 home runs allowed in 43.2 innings?
Blame Devers for not wanting to play first base.
Want to see Marcelo Mayer at shortstop? Ask Story to move to first. And bat him 10th.
Neither Devers nor Story has ever played first base in the majors. Not once. Asking either one to do so is equally absurd — especially now that Mayer is in the picture. And after Devers has already moved from 3rd base to DH.
Red Sox/Liverpool/Boston Common Golf/Boston Globe owner John Henry emerged from cryogenic stasis (give our best to Ted) and flew to Kansas City on May 9. He did … something … to mediate the standoff between Devers, Manager Alex Cora, and Red Sox GM “For Now” Craig Breslow.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto famously (allegedly) wrote in his diary after December 7, 1941:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
We’d never accuse Henry of secretly plotting the attack on Pearl Harbor. He’s done far worse in plain sight.
Henry took all the bows for signing Bregman. And we’ll give him credit for triggering Devers’ current offensive rampage — even if it began a few days earlier.
Devers’ walk-off bomb in the bottom of the 9th on Saturday injected Red Sox Nation with endorphins not felt since 2021.He followed that with a 442-foot grand slam less than 18 hours later. His teammates? They contributed 0 RBI Sunday in a momentum-crushing 10-4 loss.
Devers’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start is a distant memory.
Over his 15 games leading up to Tuesday, he posted a Ruthian slash line: .389/.500/.667. Four home runs. Seventeen RBI. Only 12 strikeouts in 54 at-bats.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox continue their assault on mediocrity — a siege that began with the Mookie Betts salary dump.
Since 2020, Boston is 383-385 (.499), including the postseason. Hang that in Cooperstown, right next to Pete Rose’s final same-game parlay.
Technically, Boston’s winning percentage is .4986979166 over those 768 games. We round up because we care.
By going 383-385 over that span, the Masters of Mediocrity couldn’t get closer to .500 without being exactly .500. Source: Arlington Public Schools Math.
And they can keep flirting with .500, knowing that all the heat from their stone-cold bats with runners in scoring position and inconsistent pitching staff gets redirected at Devers.
Devers is hardly the first Sox player upset about a position change. Betts came up as a second baseman. He was shifted to the outfield because Dustin Pedroia refused to give up second base until it was pried from his cold, dead hands. Same with Yoan Moncada in 2016.
The real question: Where do the fans stand in the Devers-Red Sox squabble?
Team Raffy? Or Team Front Office?
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei” at 4 Jersey Street.
Friday is Rafael Devers Bobblehead Night. The first 7,500 fans will get a JetBlue-sponsored bobblehead of Devers — looking Ozempic-slim in a brand-new Green Monster City Connect jersey. I’ll take 10. So will most everyone else there.
Hard to paint Bobblehead Raffy as the villain when he’s launching bombs into the Red Sox bullpen.
There’s a core of Red Sox fans raised in the belief that at work, when you agree to take The Man’s paycheck. you agree to do what The Man says. That’s carried to far more important extremes in military or public service. There’s no time for freelancing when fighting a fire, or the Taliban. That belief system is the one in which I was raised.
However, the current situation in which the Red Sox have placed themselves does not apply. The team’s failure to have a backup plan at first base after the loss of Triston Casas (get well soon) is not Devers’ fault.
Red Sox brass dropped the ball with Devers this offseason. They didn’t keep him in the loop while pursuing Alex Bregman. And they didn’t ensure he was following any kind of offseason conditioning plan.
If only the Red Sox had a connection to a Hall of Fame DH from the Dominican Republic who could’ve worked with Devers this offseason on a smooth transition off third base …
Now they want him to move again.
No es bueno.
Childish? Maybe. But this is the reality of Red Sox baseball. Devers has more leverage than Breslow. And is far more important in terms of “what’s best for the team.”
And when it comes to goats on the green grass at Fenway Park, the GM is the one who ends up grazing elsewhere.
Contact Bill Speros: @BillSperos and @RealOBF on X, or at bsperos1@gmail.com
