Red Sox Star Rafael Devers Openly Criticizes Team’s Roster Construction
Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers spoke to reporters on Tuesday and spent much of his media availability candidly criticizing the organization’s roster construction.
Devers was asked if he harbored any feelings of disappointment about the organization’s lack of offseason spending, despite the front office having said they intended to be big spenders.
“But they [Red Sox’s ownership] need to make an adjustment to help us players to be in a better position to win,” Devers said, speaking through an interpreter [via The Athletic]. “Everybody in this organization wants to win, and we as players want to win, and I think they need to make an adjustment to help us win.
“Everybody knows what we need. You know what we need and they know what we need. It’s just some things I can’t say. I'm not allowed.”
Boston has missed the playoffs the last two years, going 78–84 in both seasons. The Red Sox have made just one trip to the postseason in the last five years, having parted ways with some star players during that timeframe as they attempted to build for the future.
This offseason, they failed to sign any of the league’s marquee free agents, and haven’t made a significant trade to help them compete this year.
“I think they’re thinking more in the future. Last year when we had an opportunity to do something (at the trade deadline) and be in the race, nothing happened,” Devers said. “I felt like then they were thinking in the future and when those opportunities come along, we need to be more aggressive and try to embrace those opportunities.
“It’s just at the end of the year when you go home early when you know you had a chance to be in the race or competing to make a playoff run and they don’t give you a push and the help you needed, that the team needed at the time, of course, it’s going to sting.”
Devers is entering the first season of a 10-year, $313 million deal he signed with the organization last January. Under contract for another decade still, the 27-year-old didn’t mince words as he expressed his frustrations over the team’s lack of ambition in building a competitive roster.
