Boston Red Sox fans should be celebrating the signing of All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman. Bregman has been workmanlike and occasionally unstoppable during his career with the Houston Astros. But Sox fans are now full of worry. Might Bregman not fit in because of an ego issue?

Possibly not.

Now, it isn’t Bregman who is the one with the ego issue.. It’s the guy who already has the third base job for the Red Sox, Rafael Devers. Devers was asked by reporters this week if he would consider moving from third base . Normally, you would expect a player to say, “Whatever is good for the team,“ or, “I love the signing it makes our infield even stronger,“ or, “Has anyone tried the lemon blueberry pastry at Bee’s Bakery?“ Something like that. But Dever’s response was, “No.” and not only was it, “No,” but he then followed up with another, “No,” when asked if he would consider a role as a designated hitter.

Look, there’s no doubt Devers is one of the best power hitters in the game when healthy (.279 career average, 200 home runs in eight seasons). And he certainly has been willing to give his all for his team whenever he has been hurt. Although, his attempts to be productive during the 2021 playoffs had mixed results.

The thing is his defense is terrible. He has led the league in errors at the position for seven of his eight years. That isn’t one year of unusual plays, or wicked bad hops, or an invasion of crickets for an entire July. Seven out of eight is bad…really bad.

Enter Bregman who is a significant upgrade coming to the club. Unlike Devers, Bregman led the league in assists for the last three years and has twice led it in fielding percentage. Add that to an offense that provides numbers (191 home runs and a .272 career average) that are almost equivalent to Devers.

Any idiot can see the signing gives the Sox a better chance to win if Devers moves somewhere else. But, that’s the problem. Devers does not want to move and -instead of being a leader- is taking the role of spoiled child.

Fortunately for Boston, Bregman has not pouted and has instead begun taking groundballs at second base. That’s what Devers should be doing. Really, the ideal thing to do is to play Devers at first base to replace the platoon of Triston Casas and Romy Gonzalez. However, that platoon can be found at shortstop and in every outfield position, too. That would free up Boston to sign a designated hitter to replace Masataka Yoshida (Sorry, 25 homers in 915 at-bats is not what you need from your DH).

It probably wouldn’t be the end of the world if you moved Bregman to short and kept Devers at third, but the question is, “Is that really the best thing for the team?“

The answer is no. 

As for Devers’ attitude, I get it. I’ve been laid off from more jobs than I can probably count now. So I understand the pride factor of losing your position, but there’s a difference. I didn’t have a job at all. Devers still has one and is making a boat ton of money to play a game for fans who adore him.

Even that’s not totally true. It’s an interesting dynamic in Boston. You have fans who adore the team and all the players as long as they are winning. You have some of those fans who will turn on the players as soon as they struggle or the team starts losing. And then you have some fans who are still playing to the racist prejudice from the 1800s when their ancestors immigrated to the United States as poor uneducated workers and their social rung was only one step above African Americans. One step was all those immigrants needed to develop a hatred and feeling of security superiority over for a group of people that had done absolutely nothing to them. Pride. It’s potentially cancerous.

This is also an interesting dynamic because Devers thinks he has leverage because of his offensive production, but the Red Sox have already secured his possible replacement. Boston has not been afraid before to let players go who were all-stars: Fred Lynn to Mo Vaughn to Manny Ramirez. Of course, Manny was a little different because he was so crazy due to the performance-enhancing drugs he was taking and the team couldn’t stand to have him peeing on the field and disappearing from the clubhouse.

So, Devers could continue to refuse to play any position but third base and Boston could absolutely ship him off to a team that needs a third baseman. The Astros would certainly be interested in someone to take the place of Isaac Paredes or Mauricio Dubón. Zack Dezenzo has put up good power numbers in the minors, but he played only 52 games last year. The Dodgers have not had much luck replacing Justin Turner since he left. Max Muncy is now hitting .228 for his career and has a .944 fielding percentage at third. Devers is an obvious offensive upgrade there. But, Muncy also plays four other positions…something the Dodgers value and Devers has shown an unwillingness to do.

The other suitors might be the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, and Washington Nationals who are hoping draft prospects are going to break through this year 

Another possibility is that the Toronto Blue Jays could sign Vladimir Guerrero and then trade him to the Red Sox for Devers. Or they could just trade him now under his existing contract. The number that Devers is getting from his 300+ million dollar contract would probably be $150 million less than what Guerrero wants. The question is, would Boston want to pay that kind of money for a first baseman? The extension of eight years and $248 million by Miguel Cabrera with the Tigers is still the highest in Major League baseball. Freddie Freeman didn’t even make that kind of money and I would argue that Freeman has been more valuable over the last eight years than Cabrera was during his last eight.

The Red Sox have options. So does Devers. The question is, will he do what’s best for the team?