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Red Sox Leave Door Open for New Rafael Devers Role After Triston Casas Injury

Triston Casas's devastating injury has upended the Red Sox's plans for the year.

Josh Wilson

Devers has never played first base in the pros
Devers has never played first base in the pros / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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When you lose a player as important as Triston Casas for the majority of the season, all your plans go out the window. That's the reality the Boston Red Sox are facing now, as Casas is expected to be out for the year with a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee after leaving Friday night's game on a stretcher. He will undergo surgery.

Team executive Craig Breslow briefly spoke about the injury on Saturday, sharing that "all options" are on the table, specifically leaving the door open for Rafael Devers to play first base, as relayed by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

Devers had a somewhat tense spat with the team coming into this year. Boston added elite third baseman Alex Bregman this offseason in free agency, which has typically been Devers's role. Devers strong-armed the position as firmly his, but later let up to serve as the full-time designated hitter. Now, it looks like the team could reposition him in the infield at first. That was followed with a tough slump to start the year that he has now rebounded from.

Devers has never played first base at the highest level of pro ball, nor has he played the position in minor league ball. It's a transition many players have made over the years though, including star players like Bryce Harper in recent memory.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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