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Speaker 1: The Red Sox don't have a backup for a spacement

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Speaker 1: that's not on Rafael Devers. That's not his fault.

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Speaker 2: All right, I'm interested to hear what Ken has to

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Speaker 2: say the inside scoop with Ken Rosenthal. Let's get right

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Speaker 2: to the Rafael Devers drama that's been rolling all season

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Speaker 2: long here since the start of spring training. Can I mean,

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Speaker 2: obviously he said some things yesterday that stood out a ton,

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Speaker 2: but after you comment on that, I'm like, there's something

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Speaker 2: deeper going on here, because this is getting weird every

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Speaker 2: turn seems to be more drama. From a positional standpoint,

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Speaker 2: what did you think when you heard the comments yesterday?

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Speaker 1: First off, there's a lot going on here, and the comments,

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Speaker 1: I guess did not surprise me. They were similar to

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Speaker 1: the comments he made after the Red Sox initially asked

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Speaker 1: him to become a dh following the signing of Alex Bregman.

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Speaker 1: I have a lot of thoughts on this. There is

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Speaker 1: a lot of nuance to this, a lot of layers

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Speaker 1: to this. My first thought is everyone takes for granted,

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Speaker 1: everyone being media and sometimes teams, how difficult it is

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Speaker 1: to play first base rap field. Devers has never played

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Speaker 1: first base as a professional. I don't know that he's

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Speaker 1: ever played it, period. And to ask him in the

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Speaker 1: middle of a season to do this, it's not Bryce

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Speaker 1: Harper coming off an injury training to play first base.

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Speaker 1: It's not Mookie getting half a spring last year to

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Speaker 1: kind of get himself situated at the shortstop. It's the

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Speaker 1: middle of a season. And I know, Scott, you said, well,

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Speaker 1: he can take some time just work out there. He

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Speaker 1: is also a guy who has just been asked to

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Speaker 1: adjust to being a DH. Took him time to do that.

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Speaker 1: And now you're perhaps compromise against offense when you move

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Speaker 1: from the first base if he's going to be so

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Speaker 1: preoccupied with playing that position, when you have to deal

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Speaker 1: with pickoffs and cutoffs and all kinds of positioning things.

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Speaker 1: It's just not that easy. And the other thing is

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox don't have a backup first baseman. That's

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Speaker 1: not on Rafael Devers. That's not his fault. And I

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Speaker 1: guess it's it's true that teams can't be protected at

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Speaker 1: every spot, but they've got no alternatives here. And you

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Speaker 1: can go out and maybe sign somebody or someone who's

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Speaker 1: in triple A, go get him. That would be a possibility.

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Speaker 1: It's not going to be Tristan Cassis, but it's on

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Speaker 1: Raphael Devers. It's his problem here that you don't have

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Speaker 1: a backup at that position. So to me, Devers isn't

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Speaker 1: something of a no win here. If he plays the

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Speaker 1: position he goes and plays it well, he might embarrass

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Speaker 1: himself for a little bit defensively, he might be compromised offensively.

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Speaker 1: And if he doesn't play the position, which seems to

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Speaker 1: be his position right now, then he looks selfish. This

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Speaker 1: is a situation that is born out of the Red

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Speaker 1: Sox lack of communication with him, improper communication. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what you describe it as, but it has not

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Speaker 1: been handled very well from the very start. Because if

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Speaker 1: you were going after Alex Bregman and they were going

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Speaker 1: after Alex Bregman, at that point you have to say, listen, RAFFI,

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Speaker 1: we're going after Bregman. So if we're gonna get him,

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Speaker 1: but if we get him, we're gonna have to have

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Speaker 1: some conversations. Instead, they blindsided him. Now, I know a

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Speaker 1: lot of fans are gonna look at this and say, guys,

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Speaker 1: the three hundred million dollar players should do whatever the

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Speaker 1: team wants. And there is a certain element of truth

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Speaker 1: to that, no question about it. You should be willing

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Speaker 1: to do with the team wants. But what the team

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Speaker 1: is asking here is a big ask. And my final

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Speaker 1: point here is that the manager of the team, Alex Cora,

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Speaker 1: didn't seem to want to ask Ralphael Devers to do this.

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Speaker 1: Cora kept saying, I'm not gonna be the one asking him.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna ask him to do this. We already

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Speaker 1: asked him to dh The ultimate question was asked by

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Speaker 1: the President Baseball Operations, Craig Breslow. That's a little odd too.

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Speaker 1: Does Cora not want Devors to be at first base?

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Speaker 1: Or does he simply not want to be a part

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Speaker 1: of this whole mess. I don't know more answers to come.

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Speaker 3: I hope where's the communication breakdown in your what's the

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Speaker 3: genesis of the communication breakdown? Is it the fact that

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Speaker 3: Breslo's a new GM and Coorra is like, I feel

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Speaker 3: like I kind of butted heads with hein Bloom before

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Speaker 3: and now we got another GM. Are they butting heads?

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Speaker 3: Is Cora saving his player because he's got to be

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Speaker 3: in the locker room with them? So you go do

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Speaker 3: the dirty work, like where's that communication breaking down or

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Speaker 3: the genesis of the breakdown of communication?

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Speaker 1: Eric, I have all the same questions you do, and

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Speaker 1: I believe Alex Korra is going to speak to the

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Speaker 1: media before the game today and a lot of these

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Speaker 1: questions are going to be asked. There's no doubt about that.

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Speaker 1: I don't know the genesis of it, although I guess

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Speaker 1: you would go back to the off season when they

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Speaker 1: kept telling Endeavors, don't worry about it, you're our third baseman.

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Speaker 1: They kept saying it publicly, he's our third baseman. He

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Speaker 1: wasn't their third basement under certain circumstances that later transpired.

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Speaker 1: So that's maybe how it started. But where it is

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Speaker 1: now and where the breakdown is coming, I'm not clear

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Speaker 1: on that. And if Alex Cora gets asked these questions today,

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Speaker 1: which I'm sure he will, his answers, I imagine will

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Speaker 1: be somewhat enlightening. I'm not sure that he will be.

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Speaker 1: He usually is pretty open about what he thinks, but

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Speaker 1: he's in a difficult spot. Here's kind of caught between

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Speaker 1: his player, who he has a strong relationship with and

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Speaker 1: probably wants to defend, and his new boss or relatively

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Speaker 1: new boss Craig Breslow, And yes, you're absolutely right. He

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Speaker 1: had those problems with Loom. They've been well documented, so

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Speaker 1: he too is in a difficult spot.

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Speaker 2: should be thinking about, Kratz.

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Speaker 3: Why because I don't have to question what the price is.

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Speaker 3: It's going to be there. If the price changes and

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Speaker 3: a car, not fast. I just want to know what's

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Speaker 2: dot com and ken I mentioned this earlier. You know,

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Speaker 2: Alex in the off season, for example, talked about how

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Speaker 2: he was really pushing for Bregman. It sounded like he

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Speaker 2: was the high guy on him and did ultimately get

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Speaker 2: him and that's worked out wonderfully for them. Do you

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Speaker 2: think that Alex is also in a more powerful spot

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Speaker 2: than some other managers would be based on some job security. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: he's got a strong resume with this team, well paid,

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Speaker 2: so it does sound like he's a guy who does

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Speaker 2: speak his mind. He did not see eye to eye

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Speaker 2: with hein Bloom that eventually became public, and it could

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Speaker 2: be some dissension here with Breslo as well, because for me,

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Speaker 2: if he does agree to any extent, it is his

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Speaker 2: job to sit down with Devers. Right, you're a manager

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Speaker 2: these days, you're a psychologist, So even if you don't agree,

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Speaker 2: you have to be managing this to a point where

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Speaker 2: Devers isn't lasting the team in front of everyone. So

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Speaker 2: I'm just curious about the dynamics of him as a

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Speaker 2: manager versus you know, maybe some other guys in baseball.

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Speaker 2: I just think about like you know, Quatrro with the Royals, right,

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Speaker 2: he's so mild mannered. You know, obviously this is first

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Speaker 2: manager Giggy's had success. They just seem like they have

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Speaker 2: a little bit of you know, different say or different

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Speaker 2: power structure here within the organization.

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Speaker 1: Scott, you raise a couple of really good points. Alex Korra,

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Speaker 1: it would seem to me, is more powerful than most managers.

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Speaker 1: He has more say than most managers. He's been around

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Speaker 1: longer than Craig Breslow has, and he has a contract

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Speaker 1: that is a pretty good one and it's been extended.

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Speaker 1: So yes, he is in that kind of spot. The

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Speaker 1: real question to me here is why, if you're the

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Speaker 1: Red Sox, are you not having Korra have that conversation

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Speaker 1: with him? And if Alex Cora says, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to be the one to do it to Craig Breslow,

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Speaker 1: Creig Breslow says, you're the manager, Pal, you have to

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Speaker 1: do this. He is a guy that you have known

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Speaker 1: forever you want a World Series with. You've got to

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Speaker 1: sit down with him and at least ask the question

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Speaker 1: and see if you can get him to do it.

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Speaker 1: You heard what Devers said yesterday. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: this GM has for me. I don't know what he's

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Speaker 1: got against me kind of what he meant. And if

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Speaker 1: that conversation happened with Cora, I don't know the Devers

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Speaker 1: could have reacted that way. So one of the many

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Speaker 1: curious things here is why that conversation did not take

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Speaker 1: place between Cora and Devers and why it took place

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Speaker 1: between Breslow and Devers instead. I'm curious about that.

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Speaker 3: Often and you are asking questions like this, and you

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Speaker 3: hear the reaction not only of Devers and what he said,

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Speaker 3: then you hear the reaction of teammates. Yes, you're not

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Speaker 3: interviewing them, but how much of that helps you paint

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Speaker 3: the picture for the story. Because Gabrielle Star tweeted out

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Speaker 3: that hearing the reaction of what Devers said was kind

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Speaker 3: of taken aback. Some of his teammates were kind of

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Speaker 3: taken aback. They reacted adversely. How much of that helps

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Speaker 3: you write your story? You're not quoting what they said,

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Speaker 3: but how much of that helps you write the story

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Speaker 3: that you're then putting out.

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Speaker 1: It's certainly part of it. Eric, and obviously the teammates reaction.

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Speaker 1: You see Gabrielle's tweet there, and I don't believe she

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Speaker 1: was the only one to kind of put that out there.

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Speaker 1: Others said as well that the other players were not

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Speaker 1: necessarily happy with Devers. Yeah, that matters. It matters a

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Speaker 1: lot because one dev said I'm great with my teammates.

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Speaker 1: Well that might be the case. And two you want

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Speaker 1: harmony as much as you can ever have harmony between

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Speaker 1: twenty six individuals in your clubhouse. So it's context for

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Speaker 1: what is going on for sure. I don't know that

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Speaker 1: it helps you write your story. There's planet right here

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Speaker 1: without that, but it's definitely part of the story. So

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Speaker 1: that too, is something that we're going to have to

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Speaker 1: see how it all plays out. Because as a player,

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Speaker 1: I want to ask Todd this too. Todd, you know

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Speaker 1: this first base is not just pick up and go

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Speaker 1: give me your glove. Let's do it. It's not that simple.

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Speaker 1: There's so much more involved. It actually is a physically

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Speaker 1: taxing position in some ways when you've got to cover

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Speaker 1: when the guy's on first and do all the different

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Speaker 1: things there. It just seems to me that's getting lost here.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I kind of explained it earlier about how

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Speaker 4: to position yourself with the lefty up, with the right up,

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Speaker 4: how to hold a runnerund picking base balls, you know,

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Speaker 4: the reaction of how ball is going to go if

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Speaker 4: it hits the grass compared to the dirt cut off.

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Speaker 4: You got to cut off from centerfield and first. I

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Speaker 4: remember the first time I did. I played first, but

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Speaker 4: you know, not in a level where I wasn't ready yet,

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Speaker 4: And I remember missing going to be the cutoff when

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Speaker 4: a center fielder got a ground ball throwing the ball

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Speaker 4: home and everybody's like, worth the cutoff man, and I'm like,

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Speaker 4: oh shoot, I forgot again. But again, how to get

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Speaker 4: off first base with a certain battern, you know, where

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Speaker 4: to position yourself on double place. There's a lot that

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Speaker 4: definitely goes into it, and there's been some really good ones,

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Speaker 4: and yeah, it's gonna be hard, but at the same time,

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Speaker 4: you know, if you put into work. I feel like,

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Speaker 4: you see a guy like Bryce Harper, you know, he

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Speaker 4: looks pretty good over there. So it's just now doing

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Speaker 4: it now, Like you said, it's gonna be It's gonna

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Speaker 4: be really tough, for sure, but you know that's the

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Speaker 4: case of anything moving on. I want to talk a

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Speaker 4: little about Max Freed. He wrote in your notes column

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Speaker 4: the other day how he adjusted to change, and with

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Speaker 4: Matt Blake, the pitching coach with the Yankees, like what

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Speaker 4: were those changes and explain to us why he's gotten

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Speaker 4: so much better when he was already elite pitcher.

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Speaker 1: So this is really interesting, Todd. And it goes back

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Speaker 1: to when they signed Freed. They had a zoom with him,

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Speaker 1: and this was reported at the time that initially the

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Speaker 1: Yankees thought, we'll check in with him, but he's probably

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Speaker 1: not coming to us. But Freed was very interested in

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Speaker 1: the Yankees, and he was asking them questions, how can

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Speaker 1: I get better? What do you guys see? What can

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Speaker 1: I do? And from that moment, the Yankees were kind

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Speaker 1: of taken by him and they thought, Wow, this really

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Speaker 1: is possible for us, and of course they signed him

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Speaker 1: eight years, two hundred and eighteen million. And the way

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Speaker 1: Matt Blake described it, they've basically done a lot of tweaking,

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Speaker 1: making his pitches different shapes, making them even better. They've

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Speaker 1: worked on a lot of different aspects of each of

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Speaker 1: his seven individual pitches, and it's working for him. In

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Speaker 1: the notes column that I wrote, I asked Ino Saras,

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Speaker 1: who's our main data guy at the athletic. I said, hey,

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Speaker 1: tell me what's going on with Freed. Tell me what's different.

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Speaker 1: And there's a lot that's different. The drop on his

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Speaker 1: pitches is more significant, the breaking stuff, and he's using

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Speaker 1: the sweeper against rieties. He's doing things that he hasn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily done before. And yes, this appears to be the

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Speaker 1: best version of Max Freed we've seen. And as you said, Todd,

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Speaker 1: we've seen Max Freed really good. So it's a testament

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Speaker 1: to his openness to new ideas, and it's a testament

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Speaker 1: also to the Yankees being able to find these different

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Speaker 1: areas that he could use to improve. No.

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Speaker 3: A teen that doesn't need to improve. The hottest demon

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Speaker 3: baseball right now, the Royals. How can you be fifteen

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Speaker 3: and two in your last seventeen games and still need help?

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Speaker 3: Not believe in the fifteen and two?

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Speaker 1: Oh? I believe in it from the pitching perspective. And

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Speaker 1: the one thing I pointed out is this has been

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Speaker 1: a relatively soft part of their schedule. They've had the

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Speaker 1: White Sox, they've had the Rockies, they've had the Ools

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Speaker 1: not playing particularly well, Tampa Bay not playing particularly well,

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Speaker 1: so listen, you have to win against the opponents in

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Speaker 1: front of you, and they have done that, but they

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Speaker 1: are still toward the bottom of the league. Their outfield

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Speaker 1: is one of the worst outfields from an offensive production

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Speaker 1: standpoint in the league. So yes, they're going to need

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Speaker 1: help offensively. They recognize that, and they recognized it probably

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Speaker 1: will be in their outfield. If you remember I reported,

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Speaker 1: I don't remember, it's been training. It was that they

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Speaker 1: pursued Anthony Santon there. It was a reason they pursued

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Speaker 1: Anthony Santon there. That kind of guy is still somebody

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Speaker 1: that they need.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: If Praskan Twino gets going a little bit, there'll be

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Speaker 1: in a better spot, and some others get going a

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Speaker 1: little bit, But the outfield is still a weakness and

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Speaker 1: it's still something that I expect them to address at

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Speaker 1: some point before the deadline.

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Speaker 3: Something that we thought they needed to address all off

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Speaker 3: season was the Mariners offense. Well, I guess we were wrong.

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Speaker 3: All they needed was Kevin Seitzer and to re sign

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Speaker 3: Jorge Palanko.

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Speaker 1: Eric This is one of the most surprising things about

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Speaker 1: the season so far, how well they've played offensively. And

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's just the new hitting coaches.

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Speaker 1: I can't tell exactly what's going on. I don't know

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Speaker 1: that anyone can. But they're striking out a lot less,

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Speaker 1: they're hitting home runs, they're walking at a very high rate,

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Speaker 1: they're leading the majors in walks. Those are all good

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Speaker 1: formulas for success. And they've also gotten contributions from Leo

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Speaker 1: Revas and Williamson at third base, the rookie and Miles

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Speaker 1: master Bony, all these different guys have kind of helped

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Speaker 1: them along. And they've gotten superstar production from Cal Rawley

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Speaker 1: and Rye Polanco. Dylan Moore has been a big part

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Speaker 1: of what they've done. So it all seems to be

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Speaker 1: clicking for them right now. How long it can last,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Is Hojyate Polanco going to have an

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Speaker 1: eleven hundred ops all season long? I tend to doubt it.

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Speaker 1: But with all this said, Julio Rodriguez really has not

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Speaker 1: gotten hot yet. So these things tend to balance out.

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Speaker 1: Some guys regress in a negative way, some guys regress

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Speaker 1: in a positive way. And clearly they're pitching. Even though

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Speaker 1: they've lost George Kirby and Logan Gilbert for a time,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be a formidable team in what appears

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Speaker 1: to be a weaker AL West than maybe we thought.

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Speaker 3: You had some good analysis on the A's in your

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Speaker 3: notes column, who are also in the same division, making

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Speaker 3: that division tougher and making the Mariners start here even

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Speaker 3: more important because there's clearly going to be tough games

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Speaker 3: in a division. But he tell us a little bit

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Speaker 3: more about the A's and what we should be paying

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Speaker 3: attention to in Sacramento.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting, Eric. Often with the defensive metrics, I get

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Speaker 1: upset because they will disagree with each other. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about out the average in defensive run saved. Sometimes one

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Speaker 1: of those stats will portray a player or team favorably

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Speaker 1: while the other does not, and I just throw up

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Speaker 1: my hands and say, what are we doing here? In

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Speaker 1: this particular case, A's team defense, they are last and

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Speaker 1: outs of a average, and they are last in defensive

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Speaker 1: run saved. That tells me, even though it's a relatively

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Speaker 1: small sample at this point, that they're not a very

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Speaker 1: good defensive team, and clearly they are not. So when

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Speaker 1: they play good defense, it seems they generally win, and

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Speaker 1: when they don't, things happen, and they don't have good outcomes,

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Speaker 1: So that's something I don't know that you can fix

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Speaker 1: it necessarily in season, but it's kind of a work

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Speaker 1: in progress. They've got Saderstrom out in left field now

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Speaker 1: because Kurts is at first base, and that seems to

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Speaker 1: be going well. Kurts is a good defender. Jacob Wilson

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Speaker 1: has improved at shortstop. Third base is a bit of

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Speaker 1: a question because they want Andrew Harr's bat in the lineup.

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Speaker 1: He's not a great third baseman necessarily, so they've got

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Speaker 1: some different kinds of issues going on. JJ Bludet not

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Speaker 1: playing well in center. At the same time, they've been

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Speaker 1: more competitive than most of us would think they would

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Speaker 1: have been. They're over five hundred. They've played pretty well,

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Speaker 1: I would say, for the most part, and I expect

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Speaker 1: that that will continue.

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Speaker 3: Ken you wrote an article a few days ago about Pardemo,

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Speaker 3: the shortstop for the Diamondbacks, and how when he came

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Speaker 3: into the league he was a rookie who was kind

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Speaker 3: of taken the wrong way by veterans. Is that something

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Speaker 3: that he then needed Toy Levello to say, hey, you

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Speaker 3: know what, just be you, or is it something that

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Speaker 3: him and Tory Levello, You talked about in the article,

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Speaker 3: had arguments, but it elevated his game to be the

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Speaker 3: person that he is today, or stayed the same person

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Speaker 3: and then just became a great player.

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Speaker 1: He stayed the same person. And what was going on

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Speaker 1: in the clubhouse with his teammates and what was going

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Speaker 1: on with Lavello were really two different things. Some of

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Speaker 1: the veterans took a little exception to his energy and

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Speaker 1: his enthusiasm as constant chatter. They just thought, this kid,

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Speaker 1: it's too much. And what's interesting is the one guy

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Speaker 1: who didn't think it was too much, who eventually came

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Speaker 1: around to Prudomo, according to Prudomo, was the king of

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Speaker 1: the old school medicine, Bumgarner and eventually to other players

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Speaker 1: and Merrill Kelly talked about this with me as I

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Speaker 1: was doing the article. They said, listen, we came to

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Speaker 1: realize that's just him and he's now a leader of

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Speaker 1: our team. Zach Gallon said, he's like the captain, the

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Speaker 1: heartbeat of our club. And from that perspective, it just

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Speaker 1: took time for players to accept him, and probably they

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Speaker 1: should have accepted him sooner. This was a losing team

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Speaker 1: at the time, though they lost one hundred and ten

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Speaker 1: the first year Perdomo was up, so some of his

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Speaker 1: enthusiasm in that situation didn't play as well as it

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Speaker 1: might have in others. Now, with regard to Lovello, it

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Speaker 1: was a different question and a different concern. Levello wanted

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Speaker 1: Perdomo to become more of a leader, become the quarterback

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Speaker 1: of the infield, and he was hard on him in

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Speaker 1: getting Perdomo to kind of understand that role, understand what

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Speaker 1: is expected of him, and that took time. And one

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Speaker 1: of the interesting things I thought that came out of

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Speaker 1: the story was just how that manager player relationship evolved.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't so smooth at the beginning, and now it's

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Speaker 1: as good as it can be. They have nonverbal communication,

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Speaker 1: they have verbal communication, and from that perspective, I thought

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Speaker 1: it was really interesting. And overall, I know the Arizona

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Speaker 1: Diamondbacks are on a nationally sexy team. I know a

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Speaker 1: lot of people still don't know who who, although Perdomo is.

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Speaker 1: But this was one of the more interesting stories I've

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Speaker 1: worked on in a while, one of the more satisfying stories,

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Speaker 1: because there was so much going on here. It was

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Speaker 1: so much interesting background that I would encourage people to

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Speaker 1: read it and just give it a look, because yes,

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Speaker 1: it's about the Diamondbacks and it's about Perdomo, and you

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Speaker 1: might not like or care about the Diamondbacks or Perdomo,

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Speaker 1: but there's a lot in here that's just about baseball

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Speaker 1: and again acceptance of teammates, manager player relationships. It was

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Speaker 1: all pretty interesting.

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Speaker 2: To me, and the Diamondbacks like him enough to give

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Speaker 2: them a nice extension. You know, a month or two

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Speaker 2: ago in spring training, so you signed up for four

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Speaker 2: years forty five mil at least, if not more. There's

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Speaker 2: a option and some incentives on top of that can

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Speaker 2: take it all the way up to five year seventy

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Speaker 2: two mil. I'll just add this for a plug. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot more in Ken's notes column, including some info

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Speaker 2: on Perdomo and the Jordan Lawler dynamic. Lawler hasn't really

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Speaker 2: worked out yet up in the bigs. He's had some injuries,

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Speaker 2: but check that out if you want to take a

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Speaker 2: look too. Ken, appreciate the time, great info on a Friday,

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Speaker 2: have a great weekend, and good luck to you with

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Speaker 2: your colleague and dork of the week AJ Prazinski on

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Speaker 2: Saturday on Fox.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe I should have restrained myself knowing i'd be

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Speaker 1: working with him, but nah, I don't think so.

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Speaker 2: It makes for good theater. Hey, mid May Fox game,

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Speaker 2: I'm locked in for that, so I'm looking forward to

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Speaker 2: the commentary.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Ken, Thanks guys,