New tale in 3rd person
Phillips is latest to try hot corner
If it wasn’t September, there would be no reason not to send Rafael Devers on the field to play third base every single day.
He still looks every bit like the third baseman of the future, the guy who David Ortiz called an MVP candidate back in January.
But he’s no longer the Red Sox third baseman of the now.
Last night at Fenway Park, manager Alex Cora wrote out his lineup card with yet another new third baseman, Brandon Phillips, to handle the duties in the series finale against Houston.
It was the third player to start at the hot corner in three games against the Astros.
Devers has started just twice in five games since returning from the disabled list.
Asked if he’ll get a chance to play regularly again this year, Cora said, “I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but he’ll get at-bats. I can’t say if it’s once every three games or every day, but he’ll get at-bats.”
It’s not going to be easy to prove he belongs in the starting lineup for Game 1 of the American League Division Series by playing every three games over the final three weeks.
It seems like the job is someone else’s to win.
Phillips hadn’t started a big league game at third base in his first 15 major league seasons, but he started there 25 times with the Atlanta Braves last year and the Sox have enough question marks in their lineup that getting the redhot Phillips on the field became a priority.
It could’ve happened at first base, and it still might if Phillips continues to perform and Mitch Moreland continues to slump. But against the left-handed Dallas Keuchel it was lefty-masher Steve Pearce at first and Phillips at third last night.
Eduardo Nunez got the first chance on Friday night, when he went 1-for-4 and failed to come up with two very difficult hot shots down the line that directly led to runs for the opposition. He’s far from a defensive wizard at any position, but has handled third base well enough to make people forget he’s just 4-for-29 over his last eight games.
Devers got a chance on Saturday, and it was much worse. He was 0-for-4 at the plate and made another error at third base when he made a quick diving stop — a difficult play — but lost the ball underneath his body and then threw it wide of second base.
Nobody in baseball has made more errors than Devers’ 22 this season, and that’s despite playing in just 106 games while taking three trips to the disabled list.
Cora was, at least, happy with Devers’ at-bats.
“He looks like he’s slowed down, he’s not as jumpy,” the manager said. “Yesterday there were some good pitches on him. I think although the results aren’t there, he’s not chasing pitches out of the zone, which is good.”
The Sox knew it was going to be a long season with Devers on defense, but they were willing to bite that bullet at the hope for development and growth that would lead to a franchise cornerstone player.
Not long after Cora arrived in Fort Myers for spring training, he compared Devers to Adrian Beltre, who infamously made 52 errors combined over his first two full seasons in the bigs, then went on to win five Gold Gloves.
Devers tends to be great to his left but struggles to his right, and watching him throw to first base is like watching somebody on a bicycle for the first time; there’s so much that can go wrong.
Nunez seems to be a known commodity that Cora is comfortable with. He’s caught a few short hot streaks but his season numbers are still ugly: .258 average, .664 OPS while swinging at 40 percent of the pitches thrown to him outside of the strike zone.
Brock Holt has always been fine at third base, though it’s probably his worst position of the seven he’s played. And he’s hitting just .257 with a .701 OPS on the year.
Blake Swihart is still taking grounders at third base, but Cora hasn’t shown a lot of trust in him as an infielder.
Phillips has a chance to take this job and run with it.
Devers, hitting .239 with a .712 OPS this year, hasn’t proven he deserves it.
“He understands,” Cora said. “He understands that he didn’t have too many at-bats in August either, then he went to Triple-A and Holt and Nuney are playing well.
“It’s not that we gave up on him. He means a lot and we know what he can do with a bat. Just a matter of, wait for your turn now. His turn is going to come. We have a feeling that he’s going to start swinging the bat better and he’ll put me in that good problem to have thing that everybody loves.”