Starr’s 7 Questions: Why didn’t Rafael Devers fit Sox ‘culture’

Seven questions to get you through the latest Red Sox losing streak Hopefully at selected point we ll be able to move on from endless discussion of the Rafael Devers pact I d love to But not yet What exactly is the lifestyle the Sox are trying to build without Devers An enthralling claim made by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and unit president Sam Kennedy in last week s post-trade videoconference was that the Devers did not fit the way of life the Red Sox are trying to establish We would not have made this contract if we didn t think it was best for the organization and the vision and the beliefs and the lifestyle that we re trying to create Breslow explained I think tradition is consistently major but I think it s magnified when you have young players who are coming to the big leagues we re very deliberate about the habitat that we re creating to backing these guys and making sure that the messaging is the right type of messaging so that three four five years from now when there s another wave of really exciting young talent that s infusing our Major League group they have set the standard and it will be easy to pass on Devers behavior could set a poor example but we re not talking about toddlers Roman Anthony Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell may be too young to rent a car but they are grown men None have acted in a way that suggests they re anything less than professional Anthony the youngest of the trio having just celebrated his st birthday is often described by teammates as mature beyond his years More irksome is the vein of hypocrisy running through this standard setting messaging from Sox leadership Under Breslow the Sox have seemingly abandoned their longstanding unofficial mandate against signing players who ve been suspended by Major League Baseball for violating the domestic violence sexual assault and child abuse initiative It used to be something upon which the Red Sox could hang their proverbial baseball cap In when the bullpen needed reinforcements as Boston was vying to make a deep playoff run Dave Dombrowski made it clear that the Red Sox wouldn t go near reliever Roberto Osuna whom the Blue Jays were offering up to desperate teams while he was serving a -game suspension for domestic assault The Red Sox were the first squad to ever suspend a member for such reasons nearly years before MLB and the players association enacted the joint approach in Only the Mariners ever meted out any such punishment in the intervening years It was especially impressive that the Red Sox once took such a firm stance on these so-called off-the-field issues when on-field wrongdoings have long been treated as substantially worse There s no greater example than the postseason rule Players suspended for performance-enhancing substances are barred from participating in that year s postseason Players suspended for violating the league s framework may return and play on baseball s grandest stage as new Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman did mere months after serving his suspension he won a ring with the Cubs In other words in MLB s eyes doping deserves a harsher punishment than harming human beings In this new Red Sox regime it s Devers who doesn t fit the custom What does it say about the Sox tradition that three homegrown stars reversed subject when they landed with new teams Mookie Betts was determined to go to free agency when he was still under Red Sox organization control Less than six months after his contract to the Dodgers he signed a -year extension Xander Bogaerts didn t want to move to second base in Boston but was willing to do so in San Diego Now Devers Less than two days after the Red Sox shipped him off supposedly for his refusal to learn first base midseason he was working out at first base in San Francisco It s not uncommon for players to want to make a good impression when they join a new club but this pattern also speaks to how the Red Sox have repeatedly disrespected and poorly handled their best homegrown stars How bad are the Red Sox without Devers The business hours after completing a Fenway sweep of the Yankees to extend their winning streak to a season-high five games They won their first tournament without him too and their firing-on-all-cylinders performance and vigor in that Mariners series opener seemed like a message Don t worry we can do this without that guy They got shut out the following night but bounced back to win two in a row between the Seattle finale and San Francisco opener Then they lost five in a row Since the bargain they rank dead-last in OPS and strikeout percentage With him they averaged runs per event Without him they re averaging runs per event When is something going to change for the better And what will it be The Red Sox enter this homestand - And for all of manager Alex Cora s reiteration that they just need to be better the harsh truth is that they haven t really gotten better in years Will anyone get fired There are a great number of reasons why the Red Sox aren t the unit they should be including years of low payroll a farm system that hasn t consistently churned out top talent and now the jettisoning of their best hitter But at a certain point you have to ask about the coaching staff Several of the issues with the Sox are issues that have plagued this club for several years running The endless errors and too-frequent strikeouts for example Should the Sox buy or sell at the arrangement deadline Last week I would have commented buy This week I m not so sure Such is the duality of this unit Sometimes they play like a complete band then they revert right back to the worst version of themselves The proverbial pendulum has swung from good to bad and back again at an alarmingly frequent pace The the greater part consistent thing about the Red Sox is inconsistency And teams that repeatedly follow a step forward with at least one step back are not built for a deep playoff run In fact they re unlikely to get in at all Has sports gambling poisoned the relationship between athletes and fans Earlier this week Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte was brought to tears during a battle against the White Sox because a so-called fan began shouting cruel taunts about Marte s mother who was killed in a car accident in The perpetrator has been banned indefinitely from all major league venues but the event has sparked a massive debate about how athletes are treated by the citizens particularly since when the Supreme Court lifted a federal law prohibiting single-game wagering As of sports betting was legal in states and the District of Columbia The rise of social media and the ability to cloak one s self in digital anonymity was already emboldening people to be crueler Now that fans have a literal stake in the competition it s on another level On Wednesday Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock s wife Jordan voiced her backing for Marte on her Instagram Stories This Is Not Okay Athletes are people too Not pieces you bet on and earn the right to taunt and degrade she wrote above a Sports Illustrated photo of Marte being comforted by his teammates Particular of the preponderance resilient men I know are pro athletes Imagine that s your friend spouse son Then she added a slide with direct messages she and her family received this week I hope you get drilled in your mouth with a mph line drive You rat scumbag creep I wish I could torture you to death you homophobic slur Hang yourself you worthless expletive And notably a betting-related message My under become over i hope ur son die