It's been a little over 10 months since the Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, and Red Sox fans still aren't fully over it. What made matters far worse was that Boston's front office failed to retain Alex Bregman this past offseason.
When the Red Sox chose to prioritize Bregman over Raffy in 2025, they annoyed Devers in a way that spiraled out of control and eventually led to his departure. Losing Bregman on top of this debacle meant that Boston's leadership officially botched the entire situation in the worst way.
But a glimmer of a silver lining has emerged on the Devers front for Red Sox fans to take some solace in. Devers has been a really bad defensive first baseman so far for the Giants.
Former Red Sox Rafael Devers has looked ugly at first base for the Giants
Raffy has played first base in his last nine games for San Fran after beginning the season as a DH while he recovered from hamstring soreness. And, well ... Giants fans are wishing Devers had remained a DH. While Devers has only committed one official error so far at first base, he's had consistent trouble receiving throws and fielding grounders. He hasn't looked comfortable at all, almost as if he's new to the position. Oh, that's right, he is.
Red Sox fans couldn't believe their eyes last season when they watched Devers join the Giants and agree to start taking reps at first base, something he had refused to do for the Red Sox.
FIRST LOOK: Rafael Devers is taking reps at first base for the @SFGiants đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/u9CC5TU8AX
— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2025
"If Raffy would just play first base, all of our problems would be solved" became the rallying cry for many Red Sox fans, but now it looks like Devers at first might've opened up another can of problems for Boston.
Red Sox were right for not forcing Rafael Devers to play first base in 2025
The Red Sox's leadership didn't push back against Devers once he declined to play first; Boston went in other directions instead at the position, while planning to trade him. The Red Sox now look wise for at least the first half of that decision-making. As for the second half? Put it this way: Devers could be Boston's starting third baseman right now.
For what it's worth, Raffy's offense has also been underwhelming to begin the 2026 campaign, much to the frustration of Devers himself. Then again, Devers started ice-cold in 2025 and turned out just fine at the plate over the long haul: .851 OPS, 35 homers, 109 RBI between both Boston and San Francisco.
Until the Red Sox start looking like a contender again (we're far away from that at the moment), Boston fans will keep looking for reasons to blast the front office for its mishandling of Devers, regardless of how bad he looks defensively.
It'll be interesting to see how first-year Giants manager Tony Vitello handles the Devers issue moving forward. Do you keep him at first base and let him ride out the struggles, or do you DH him most of the time? With the Giants lacking viable alternatives to Devers at first, Vitello has his hands full with that decision.
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