DEVERS DELIVERS ON PROMISE
Scout saw smile, star
Rafael Devers was just 14 when scout Manny Nanita first set eyes on the prodigy in the Dominican Republic. The locals called the kid “Smiley Face.”
“It became his nickname,” Nanita wrote in an email to the Herald via translator Eddie Romero. “He was happy just to be on the field, always surrounded by other players because he cared about his teammates.
“Being this young, he faced older pitchers with no fear, trusting his abilities to hit and had the determination to succeed.”
Seven years later, Devers is still the same charismatic figure, and still playing against much older competition. At 21 years, 155 days on Opening Day, he was the second-youngest position player in the major leagues, only trailing Atlanta’s Ozzie Albies (21 years, 80 days).
Despite that, Devers hit .300 with an .881 OPS through the first 17 games (though a slump dropped his average to .261 through Thursday). And that’s coming off a debut season when the big-swinging rookie hit .284 with an .819 OPS and 10 homers in 58 games.
Back when he was only 14, Devers didn’t profile as much of a power hitter, but everything else convinced Nanita that Devers would become a big-league star.
“He did not like to lose and did everything he could to win,” Nanita said. “I noticed a very strong relationship between him and his father, who has always been close to him on and off the field. When he failed, his father was there to help him understand failure was part of the game. He brought this confidence to the field every day.” The power came later. “When I first saw him, he had the ability to square the ball up with bat speed and hit line drives to all field,” Nanita said. “At the moment, he was more a hitter than a power hitter, but the more I saw him, the more his power was improving. He was becoming more consistent bringing his power to the game, and I believed he could hit 15-20 home runs at some point in his career.”
About two years after Nanita first watched him play, the Red Sox signed Devers with a $1.5 million bonus and slotted him into their farm system.
He proved Nanita right in 2017, with 20 homers in 86 games between Double and Triple A. The Red Sox added him to their roster in July, and Devers hit those 10 for the big league team, including a massive homer off Aroldis Chapman to help beat the Yankees in just his 15th major league game.
“As soon as I got off the airplane when I got back to the Dominican (in the offseason), everybody was asking me questions about how I hit that home run,” Devers said. “Literally everybody was asking me about it.”
The only questions now are about Devers’ defense at third base. He has five errors through 23 games after making 12 in 56 last year. But the errors often come on routine plays; Devers has shown the ability to make strong throws on the run, diving stops to both sides and good foot speed to field slow rollers.
“His work ethic and good attitude for the game made him take big steps of improvement on his fielding abilities,” Nanita said. “I’m seeing a big chance to stay at third base for long time.”
If nothing else, the Red Sox can believe in Devers’ personality. They have since the beginning.
“His love for the game, the way he respects and listens to his coaches, his determination to become better each day has made him be the player he is today, knowing his weaknesses and working on them,” Nanita said. “He reached the (majors) faster than I expected. And I believe he will have a successful career based on his natural talent to play the game.”
Thanks in advance
When Steve Langone returned to Boston after his prolific career at Boston College did not translate professionally and injuries forced him to give up on his dream to be a big leaguer, he took a job at Wachovia Securities.
It wasn’t for him. Thankfully, he ran into Ben Crockett one day soon after and told him he was dying to get back into baseball. Crockett was working for the Red Sox in advanced scouting and set up an interview for Langone as an intern.
A 31-year-old intern. Langone got the job. “You’re setting up meetings, picking up people at the airport, getting coffee for Theo Epstein,” Langone said. “All that intern stuff. You have to be flexible, but I was 31 at the time. Most interns now are just out of college. Looking back, if I had to intern until I was 35 until I got my first full-time job I would’ve done it.”
A decade later, Langone is one of the secret weapons for the Red Sox, working behind the scenes in advance scouting alongside J.T. Watkins and collecting all the information gathered by watching video and studying analytics.
With the help of vice president of baseball research and development Zack Scott and his team, they break it all down. Hours of review to figure out which pieces need to be sent to the coaching staff.
“The first day of a series is a lot because I’m meeting with the hitting coaches to go over the opposing pitchers, I’m meeting with (pitching coach) Dana LeVangie and (bullpen coach) Craig Bjornson and (catching coordinator) Chad Epperson and (bullpen catcher) Mike Brenly to go over the opposing hitters. Then I get together with (first base coach) Tom Goodwin and (bench coach) Ron Roenicke and go over smaller things in base-stealing, bunting, pickoffs. I meet with all of them early in the day.
“Then we go to the players in the afternoon. We have the position player meetings and pitcher meetings and I’m involved in those, too. It’s meetings before meetings. So your day is pretty tied up focused on that day’s opponent.”
The hardest part? Figuring out which tips the players need to hear and which pieces of info to keep away from them. Too much, and they can feel weighed down.
“That’s a constant challenge,” Langone said. “There’s much more information than players can digest. So, video helps. A lot of times if we’re trying to explain something important, if somebody is tipping pitches, that’s something we want to show and we’ll show video so they can see it.
“We try to keep meetings short. Nobody likes sitting in long meetings. These guys are here because of their talent and ability not because they can sit down and listen to information all day. We want to give them only what they need.”
Langone travels with the team regularly players batting practice or anywhere else he directly, before the game in and gets a chance to talk to bumps into them.
“That’s where being with the team is helpful,” Langone said. “Not only is it delivered in a group setting, but it also happens one-on-ones, whether it be in the outfield during BP, in the clubhouse, in the bathroom at the urinal next to each other. Just that
one-on-one when they need an informal setting can be just as effective as information as a group setting. I saw Hanley (Ramirez) today in the bathroom and we had a conversation on (today’s pitcher). That’s where it happens.”
It’s a long ways from working at Wachovia, but Langone said it’s been a thrill, especially with the Red Sox’ hot start.
“Alex Cora gets a lot of credit for that because of his demeanor and the way he includes everyone,” Langone said. “For me, that’s what stands out.”
Langone often meets with Cora, who also said he texts with Scott daily.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Cora has an interest in hearing what everybody has to say, making the front office feel especially involved this year.
“Things are a little different than in previous years, the information that we’re using at the big league level,” Cora said. “They’re making adjustments at the minor league level, too. It seems like everyone is on the same page, and it’s a testament of the organization. They’ve done an outstanding job here and most of the guys have been here for a long, long time and now you can see why. That’s what I learned, not learned, I knew it, but just to be the manager, I feel that way. It’s a total organizational effort to accomplish what we have set.”
Give and take
There has yet to be a pitcher blowup on the manager during a mound visit this season.
It was a scene that would occur fairly often in years past, with Wade Miley, Drew Pomeranz, Rick Porcello and others often arguing with former manager John Farrell either on the mound or in the dugout, usually regarding the decision to remove them from the game.
Cora might’ve had his first battle on Thursday, when he went to check on Chris Sale with two outs in the sixth inning against Toronto. The lefthander had thrown 103 pitches and allowed three runs, and had a righthanded hitter at the plate.
But Sale stayed calm, made a case to stay in the game, and Cora let him. The next pitch was a pop-up to end the inning, and Sale finished with a quality start and the win.
“He was honest,” Cora said. “He was like, ‘I got this guy, don’t worry about it.’ He’s not going to change my mind a lot of times, but usually when I don’t want the guy to change my mind, I’ll go right to the umpire before I get to the line, but on that one, he’s still Chris Sale and even when he’s not at his best, he’s better than a lot of guys, with all due respect to our guys in the bullpen. He made a pitch, he stayed under 105, which was the goal and he gave us a chance to win.”