Alex Cora on Alex Bregman buzz, Rafael Devers’ future at 3B: ‘I guarantee we haven’t had those conversations’

DALLAS – Amidst increasing Alex Bregman buzz, manager Alex Cora made it clear the Red Sox have no immediate plans to move Rafael Devers off third base.

“I don’t know where that comes from,” Cora said during his media availability early Monday afternoon. “I haven’t talked to Raffy about that, I haven’t talked to his agent about that.”

Devers takes immense pride in his defense, and has worked to improve over the years. Ahead of the 2023 season, he said winning a Gold Glove Award was a personal goal. As he did several times throughout the ‘24 season, Cora praised Devers for his defensive growth, which wasn’t always reflected in the stat line as much as it was on the field.

“Obviously people talk about his defense. Actually, I thought last year he did an outstanding job, especially to his left,” Cora said. “He actually struggled when he was kind of like, playing in the shift. You know, if you look at his errors, he didn’t make plays at shortstop. That’s something that we have to get better at.”

Devers made 12 errors this year, the best mark of any season of his career, including his 56-game debut in ’17 (14 errors), and the pandemic-shortened ’20 campaign (also 14). According to Statcast, he was minus-6 Outs Above Average in 2024 – an improvement from minus-8 the previous season – and plus-1 making plays in and back. He was plus-2 laterally towards third base, compared to minus-10 laterally toward first.

“If something like that happens with Raffy, with (Triston) Casas, with Trevor (Story), with (Ceddanne) Rafaela, the player will know first, and I guarantee we haven’t had those conversations,” Cora reiterated.

“I think at the end of the day when you sign a contract like that, you know, he signed as a third baseman and he wants to be a third baseman,” Cora said, “and right now, he’s the third baseman of the Boston Red Sox.”

Instead, the Sox skipper discussed a hypothetical scenario in which Bregman would move to second base.

“We actually had that conversation in ‘17, when I was (bench coach) with the Astros,” Cora revealed. “He’s a Gold Glove defender at third but I always envisioned him playing in the middle of the diamond, and those were conversations in ’17. He can adjust, and he has a baseball IQ to do that. People might think the double play might be an issue. I don’t believe so, but I think he can do whatever.”

“Alex is a good player, man. He’s a complete player, he’s a player that, he’s been on winning teams his whole career, good defender, offensively he’s really good,” Cora said of Bregman. “He’s a guy that a lot of people are talking about, right, and I do believe he can impact a big-league team, a championship-caliber team, he’s that type of player.”

However, Cora also believes Vaughn Grissom, who was supposed to be the everyday second baseman this year, is ready for a fresh start in 2025.

“This is something that I’m looking forward to: Vaughn is having an excellent offseason,” Cora said. “He’s gained some weight, he’s put in work trying to be more explosive. It’ll be interesting.

“His (2023-24) offseason wasn’t great. He went to Puerto Rico (for winter ball), he got hurt. He got hurt again (in spring training), then he got sick. So just give him a Mulligan, right? And give him an opportunity to go to spring training and battle for a job and see what happens.”