Hollow Words: No. The Red Sox Aren’t ‘Back.’”

Rafael Devers isn’t the rah-rah, in-your-face clubhouse presence that Boston Red Sox fans and media often wish he would be. The latest example is his decision to bow out of the club’s annual Fan Fest this winter — an event he has never attended, which made his inclusion on the schedule curious in the first place.

But when Devers signed a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension with Boston in January of 2023, the designation of the team’s premier player —like it or not, came with it. So the team is now stuck in an awkward position since Wednesday’s acquisition of third baseman Alex Bregman.

Bregman’s superiority as a defender is obvious. His 2024 Gold Glove is proof of that. And without diving into the dizzying/boring statistics that disparage Devers as a poor defender, he’s not the complete butcher he’s often made out to be. In fact, for every two or three blunders at third, Devers still turns in an impressive play. But the fact remains Bregman is an upgrade in every sense of the word.

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo wrote in January that while “team officials have expressed a desire to push Devers to do more front-facing outreach when it comes to things like fan interaction, promotional appearances and marketing opportunities in an effort to brand him as the face of the franchise, the mild-mannered Devers has never viewed doing so as a priority.”

I expect Devers’ termination from the third base role to be similarly “mild-mannered.”

ESPN’s Jeff Passan was the first of many to report that Bregman will play second base to start the season. But it’s likely a ceremonial assignment, similar to Trevor Story’s assignment to second base in 2022 when Xander Bogaerts was the incumbent team leader/shortstop.

Much was written/podcasted/talk-radioed this week about the ridiculous fact that the Red Sox haven’t had an incumbent second baseman since Dustin Pedroia played his last game in 2019. If/when the team is in contention, expect Bregman to be installed at third base by the time the playoffs come around, with the mild-mannered Devers not commenting on it.

• The duck boat parade taken by Red Sox fans and media in the wake of the Bregman signing is proof that hunger makes the best seasoning. Veteran Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy has been down on the Red Sox for so long, it’s difficult to tell if he was being sarcastic or not when he wrote: “Everything is different now. Red Sox Nation’s long nightmare appears to be over,” on
Wednesday.

Team owner John W. Henry even got in the act with a foolish social media post of himself puffing a cigar in smug triumph.

Bregman is a terrific player who addresses the team’s needs defensively, offensively, and in the clubhouse. But how is “everything different now“? Bregman is the first positional player the Red Sox have signed to a Major League deal in the offseason since Adam Duval in 2023. “Red Sox Nation’s long nightmare” has been the team’s five-year reluctance to leverage the club’s considerable spending power to sign free agents —even “inexpensive” ones, who fill critical needs —a trend this signing does not break.

Bregman turned down less money and more tenure with the Detroit Tigers (and presumably the Toronto Blue Jays) to sign what’s essentially a one-year deal with Boston. It was a shrewd negotiation by Craig Breslow and his nerd army, particularly in the leveraging of the St. Louis Cardinals and Nolan Arenado —but they hardly broke the bank. They were gifted a coupon.

The Red Sox are “back” in that they’re exciting and competitive (on paper) again — but the free-spending, chair-throwing Red Sox of Theo Epstein/Larry Lucchino days are never coming back.

•  Bregman’s option-heavy, short-term deal that includes deferred money can’t have been a hit with the MLB Players Association, particularly as they and MLB owners appear destined for another war when the current collective bargaining agreement ends in December of 2026. Fans don’t like the Dodgers loading up while deferring all their contracts until 2108, MLBPA vets don’t like young players signing smaller, shorter deals earlier, and MLB owners in Boston, Pittsburgh and the Bronx don’t want to spend, period.

• Not a single word from the mild-mannered Sam Kennedy yet this spring. Perhaps he’s changing positions for the better of the team, too.

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