Rafael Devers will start at first base for the San Francisco Giants against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night, which both starts a new chapter of his career and ends a strange saga of his season to date. After all that, yes, Devers will start at first base, which was the likeliest outcome all along. It just won\u2019t be for the first team that asked him to.<\/p>\n
The saga of Devers\u2019 season to date actually started last winter, when he was the Boston Red Sox third baseman. That\u2019s what everybody knew him as, and the team both publicly and privately assured everyone that\u2019s what he was going to remain. Then they signed third baseman Alex Bregman without talking to Devers, initially saying that Bregman might play second. When reporters got to talk to Devers in the spring, he flatly asserted that he was a third baseman<\/a>, not a first baseman or a designated hitter, and the drama and palace intrigue ramped up.<\/p>\n After Devers finally accepted the DH role, though, regular first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury, opening up a need at the position. The Red Sox knew that if Devers could fill it, it would open up the DH slot for one of their extra outfielders, most likely Masataka Yoshida. It was a reasonable plan that was likely to improve the team\u2019s chances, but the communication wasn\u2019t ideal<\/a> and feathers were ruffled yet again.<\/p>\n It all ended with a stunning trade that sent Devers to the Giants, where he would play \u2026 first base, eventually. All they had to do was ask the right way. When a phalanx of reporters surrounded him in the Giants\u2019 dugout before a recent series against the Red Sox, he was repeatedly asked about when he was going to debut as the team\u2019s new first baseman. The response was the same: He\u2019ll play first when he\u2019s ready. In pregame chats with reporters, manager Bob Melvin lauded the work that Devers was putting in at the position, repeating that it was up to Devers when he\u2019d start playing first base.<\/p>\n