And apparently his shoulders are totally fine.
Rafael Devers spoke to the media after taking cuts in an intrasquad scrimmage and addressed the two biggest issues of Red Sox spring training so far: his position and his shoulders. Regarding the former, it appears as if Devers has finally come to terms with his future as the team’s DH, saying he is “good to do whatever they want.” Regarding the latter, he insists that his shoulders are fine and have been fine all camp, and that the only reason he has yet to appear in a game is because he did not pick up a bat at all during offseason and has been working to get his timing back. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)
So is everything copacetic in the Red Sox clubhouse? Despite what he says now, it seems pretty clear that Devers was not happy about being pushed off of third (I mean, is anyone really buying that timing thing?) In fact, he apparently considered asking for a trade. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)
But regardless, it looks like we now have a clearer picture about the opening day lineup: Devers will DH with Bregman at third. What we still don’t know is what’s going to happen with Masataka Yoshida, who is know left without a position, and who is going to play second base. With respect to the latter question, David Hamilton is doing his best to win the job and he hit his second homer of the spring yesterday:
On the pitching side of the roster, Alex Cora announced that Lucas Giolito will start the season on the IL with a hamstring injury. It was already pretty obvious that he wouldn’t be ready to start the season, now it’s just a question of how long it will take him to get back on the mound. It sure doesn’t seem like this injury is anything too serious — Giolito is still throwing, says he feels good, and actually seems frustrated that he was put on the IL. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
But now that he won’t be taking the mound for a little while, maybe he can help Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer the next time they are tasked with arranging 76 different coffee orders for the rest of the team at 4:30 in the morning. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)