Rafael Devers drama with Red Sox reaching new heights should elate Yankees fans

It could very well be true that the Boston Red Sox have a massive leg up in the AL East after the New York Yankees lost Gerrit Cole for all of 2025 and could be without Giancarlo Stanton for the same length of time, should his injury situation worsen. But all things are not rosy in Beantown.

Boston has injury troubles of their own, with Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Masataka Yoshida expected to miss the start of the season. And if you thought the Marcus Stroman "drama" with the Yankees was bad, how about we get the media jumping on whatever the heck the Red Sox are doing with Rafael Devers?

This offseason, the Sox signed former Houston Astros star Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract that has opt outs after 2025 and 2026. Almost immeditately, it created a rift within the organization in regard to the starting third baseman for this coming season.

At first, many believed Bregman would take over at second base, but it quickly became obvious that wasn't the case. The Red Sox made it clear they preferred the 2024 Gold Glove winner over Devers, who'd led either MLB or the AL in errors seven times in his career. Alex Cora made some direct comments about it. Devers was outspoken as a result.

And it's still not resolved. In fact. Devers only just started appearing in spring training games this weekend. Cora told reporters that Devers "wanted more time" and "didn't feel up to speed" but we'll go ahead and roll our eyes at that, especially after it was reported Devers thought about requesting a trade after all that's transpired this offseason. If "getting up to speed" means "comtemplating your future with your employer," then sure! Cora nailed it.

Rafael Devers considered asking Boston Red Sox for trade, but yes, everything's fine

It's one thing for a team to ponder an upgrade at a position. It's an entirely different thing to displace the face of your franchise for a player who may not be here longer than a season. Devers' 10-year, $313.5 million contract kicked in last year and he's in Boston through 2033. Bregman's glorified one-year contract will see him opt out if there's even the slimmest of chances he can out-earn that deal with a big campaign in 2025.

Devers will not be traveling with the Red Sox for their exhibition games in Mexico, which aren't for another week. Does that sound like everything's going swimmingly? Does that sound like he's quickly changed his tune to "being good with whatever the team wants him to do"?

All of this feels like an unnecessary upending of team chemistry. Devers is a certified Yankee Killer. Bregman is not an otherworldly talent you introduce to completely throw off the status quo, especially if he's not signed to a long-term deal. There's also another layer to this that puts the Red Sox in a bad position; moving Devers to a permanent DH role all but officially squeezes Yoshida off the roster, and that gives them even less leverage in trade talks with the Japanese slugger due $55.8 million the next three seasons.

The Yankees might have their own problems that have derived from bad luck and cosmic ebbs and flows, but the Red Sox manufactured their own drama for 2025 that could put them further off course than they already were.