Red Sox are worth talking about again, regardless of who plays 3B

It’s not just that people are talking about the Red Sox. It’s that some of them -- hey, we’re looking at you, Rafael Devers -- are doing some of the talking. The Red Sox made a big play at the end of the baseball winter by signing Alex Bregman to a big free-agent contract, and that made news. Then Devers, who has been the team’s biggest offensive star since David Ortiz retired, made news of his own by arriving at the Red Sox Spring Training home in Fort Myers, Fla., and announcing “Third base is my position,” now that a Gold Glove third baseman like Bregman was in Fort Myers, too.

And just like that a Red Sox team that has been far too quiet, really since coming within a couple of wins of going back to the World Series four years ago, no longer was. There was some noise around them again, as it looks very much as if they are set up to make noise again in the American League East.

And that kind of noise -- and the added interest in the Sox that has been created by this drama and even by the hot mess Devers tried to create at the hot corner -- isn’t just a good thing for Red Sox Nation, I think it’s a great thing. Even a month out from the start of the regular season, it’s as if a loud alert has been sent out of Spring Training that the Red Sox are very much back in the baseball conversation for something other than last-place finishes recently, and mediocre play.

The best news, at least for Red Sox fans, is that there couldn’t be a better manager to handle this as he navigates through all of it and through the month of March, than Alex Cora. He usually says the right thing, and did in one of his original response to what Devers said:

“I think it’s not about Bregman or Devers or Cora. It’s about the Red Sox.”

What he meant is finding the team that gives the Red Sox their best chance to win again, no matter how long Devers has been playing third for the Sox while generally hitting up a storm. And if Kristian Campbell, one of many hot prospects the Red Sox have in their pipeline, wins the second base job this month, then Bregman goes to third and Devers will mostly be a DH whether he likes it or not.

If Devers sees DH as some sort of dishonorable discharge, he should remember that the most important and most charismatic single player in all of Red Sox history, a history that includes the greatest pure hitter of all time in Ted Williams, was Big Papi.

Of course, all of this could be moot if Devers’ shoulder issues force him to DH.

This all could also change if Trevor Story, who has been largely unable to stay on the field because of injuries since the Red Sox signed him to a big contract, gets hurt again. At that point, it might not be out of the realm of possibility, even in a spring when third base for the Sox has been the extremely hot topic, it’s not crazy to think that Bregman -- a star shortstop at LSU -- might become their best option there.

Here is what the Boston Globe’s respected baseball writer Peter Abraham wrote about all of this:

“In the end, Bregman will play third base with Devers getting occasional games there. The alternative would be the Red Sox not putting their best team on the field.”

In their dreams, the best team would include Campbell. But if he’s not ready then everything could change, and Bregman could go to second, which is where so many people thought he would play when he did sign his Red Sox contract. Through it all, the new guy Bregman has been the total pro you expect him to be, just because that is what he was throughout an Astros career that saw him play in seven straight League Championship Series and win two World Series and play in two more.

"It's an honor to be Raffy's teammate," Bregman said. "We've just been keeping our head down, getting to work. Like you said, I'll play anywhere, I truly mean it. Wherever AC tells me to play, I'll be ready to play."

Just as a practical matter, he really is a much better third baseman than Devers, hands down. Since 2020, Devers is minus-34 Outs Above Average at the position, worst among qualifying third baseman, even though his metrics, in fairness to him, have been better in the postseason. Last season he was minus-6 OAA, which put him 36th among 43 qualifiers at third. Brooks Robinson he has not been, despite being such a wonderful hitter. Nor has he been Bregman.

“I feel as if I said everything I needed to say that day,” Devers now says through a translator.

Or not.

A situation that Cora will resolve is very much a work in progress. But already it has become as juicy a Spring Training story as there is anywhere as people wonder who will play third for the Red Sox this season. But the better story -- much better -- is that people are talking about the Sox again.

It's like another Boston sports great, Paul Pierce of the Celtics, once said: “If they’re not talking about you, you’re not doing anything.”