Pedro Martinez Goes On Rant About How Red Sox 'Midhandled' Rafael Devers

May 20, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers (11) hits a solo home run during the fifth inning against the New York Mets at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox recently were in some drama after asking Rafael Devers to move to first base.

Unsurprisingly, Devers wasn't too happy with the request after already being asked to make one significant change in Spring Training moving from third base to designated hitter. It was shared in Spring Training that Devers didn't think he'd be switching to designated hitter and then that changed when Alex Bregman was signed.

Devers made the change and has done a good job. Then, when Triston Casas went down he was to make another and after being told to put his glove away made it sound like he didn't want to make another switch, at least at that moment.

The whole situation was messy and team legend Pedro Martinez talked about it while speaking to Bleacher Report and shared that he thinks it was "mishandled" by manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.

"Devers is the kind of guy who leads by example and he doesn't need anyone to tell him how to do things," Martinez said. "When it comes to first base, and approaching him to be a first baseman, I think it was just midhandled. Midhandled by (Alex Cora). Mishandled by (Craig Breslow). Not so much Breslow, but Alex because Alex knows Devers really well. If Alex wanted to tell Devers to go to first and get some ground balls until you get healthy thinking about the future, Devers would've gone to first, catch some ground balls and no body would've known Devers was being trained for first base...

"Devers never says no to any time of work you ask him to do. He will go to first, he will go to the outfield and catch balls but if you don't communicate with him and then tell him 'you're not a third baseman anymore' or if you go out of the blue...I don't think that it should've been out there that he was going to be probably tried at first base and that (Alex Bregman) was going to be the only guy at third base because what happens if Bregman gets hurt all of a sudden? You have to go to Devers to play third.

"You can't tell him to throw his glove away. You can't tell him you now want him to pick up a glove at first and become a first baseman. The guy is shy enough. He doesn't want to look bad and believe me, I'm a witness. No one wants to look bad in front of 45,000 people and embarrass himself to try a position you've never played.