Rafael Devers and Kristian Campbell were teammates for only a short time. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)Getty Images
SAN FRANCISCO — Much has been said — and written — about Rafael Devers’ final months with the Red Sox in the five days since Boston sent him to the Giants. Amidst it all, there’s one narrative that has people on both sides quite confused.
In the wake of the Devers’ trade, reports surfaced that the three-time All-Star was upset that rookie Kristian Campbell had been willing to learn first base on the fly, which Devers was not. The anecdote stood out as an example of Devers poisoning the proverbial well and aiding a poor clubhouse culture. But as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Friday — and multiple sources on both sides of the messy divorce have said over the last few days — Devers took no such stance on Campbell. Even Campbell himself, on his first day in Worcester after being demoted on Triple-A called the reports “false.”
“That was false,” Campbell said. “First off, Raffy never came to me. I never had a problem with it. We were always cool. He’s an extremely great player, extremely great person. He’s a very kind person and a good teammate.”
“Second, I would say I’ve never went to the Red Sox to to to first base,” Campbell said. “They came to me and asked me if could play first base, because we didn’t have one at the time, that’s when Casas went down. I said if it would make the team better, I’ll be willing to play that position.”
Red Sox sources, in the wake of the Devers trade, do cite fostering a team-first culture that rubs off on young players like Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer as a huge factor in shopping — and eventually dealing Devers. Inarguably, team brass thought it was important that a young team didn’t view Devers’ reluctance to switch positions, on multiple occasions (and public feuding with the team) as anything resembling normal or acceptable. While that’s true, nothing as overt as Devers expressing his frustration with Campbell — or expressing that to the rookie in any capacity — took place. Devers mostly kept to himself in his final weeks in Boston and despite his own disdain for the club’s communication with him, wasn’t one to interfere in the business of others.
“I didn’t say anything like that,” he said Friday at Oracle Park. “I really don’t want to talk about it. I just want to concentrate on what’s ahead for me.”
Campbell did not — as the reports contend — volunteer to play first. The Red Sox, in the mode of exploring options after Devers refused to take ground balls at the position and with a platoon of Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro as their short-term option at the position, asked the versatile Campbell if he could do it. The 22-year-old, who has already logged time at second base, center field and left field as a rookie, was amenable.
“Got to learn the position, obviously. It’s gonna take some time,” he said on May 16 as pregame workouts at first base began. “But it’s something I’m willing to do to help the team.”
The Red Sox eventually tabled the Campbell-to-first experiment for two reasons. One, Toro was producing offensively and the platoon was working better than expected. Perhaps most importantly, working Campbell out at first base was, in large part, designed to open up second base for Marcelo Mayer, who was producing at Triple-A. Once Alex Bregman went down with a quad injury and Mayer came up to replace him at third base, there was no need to shoehorn a spot for him.
Campbell will play some first base now that he’s in Worcester as the Red Sox try to make him as versatile as possible. There, no one will scoff at his positional crash course, much like no one did in Boston last month.
“I never heard about it until it came out,” Cora said of the Devers/Campbell reports Friday. “I talked to K.C. two days ago. First thing’s first: He didn’t volunteer. I asked him to do it. So let’s put that one to rest. With that, I don’t know how accurate that is.”