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Report: Other MLB Teams 'Appalled' at How Rafael Devers Handled Red Sox Situation

Ryan Phillips

San Francisco Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers greets his new teammates in the dugout before taking on the Cleveland Guardians.
San Francisco Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers greets his new teammates in the dugout before taking on the Cleveland Guardians. / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
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Rafael Devers is now a member of the San Francisco Giants after the Boston Red Sox shocked Major League Baseball by trading him on Sunday. One MLB insider claims teams across the league were "appalled" at how Devers handled himself before the trade.

On the Baseball Tonight podcast, ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney pulled back the curtain on the deal, and how other front offices viewed Devers's behavior before it went down.

"Within the sport, people with other teams are appalled at how he handled that," Olney said. "I had one person say to me, 'Look the team's handling of this on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being bad, was a six.' This person said, 'Devers? It was a 10 out of 10 at how badly he handled this.'"

The Red Sox moved Devers off third base to full-time designated hitter when they signed Alex Bregman this offseason. A few weeks into the campaign, they approached him about playing first base, and he flatly refused, then publicly criticized the organization.

While things sound toxic all-around in Boston right now, it seems most people around the league think Devers was a problem with the Red Sox.

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Ryan Phillips
RYAN PHILLIPS

Ryan Phillips is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in digital media since 2009, spending eight years at The Big Lead before joining SI in 2024. Phillips also co-hosts The Assembly Call Podcast about Indiana Hoosiers basketball and previously worked at Bleacher Report. He is a proud San Diego native and a graduate of Indiana University’s journalism program.

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