All About Communication

Sunday night's Yankees-Red Sox game provided quite the contrast in terms of communication and the willingness to do what the team asks, which is a direct result.  On the Boston side was Rafael Devers, who was moved from third base to DH this season, then balked at another move to first base.  Then, on the Yankees' side, you had Jazz Chisholm, who went on the IL as the second baseman and came off it as the third baseman.

Devers is Boston's franchise player, signed to a 10-year, $313.5 million deal prior to the 2023 season.  
The Red Sox added Alex Bregman as a free agent late in the winter, which created a bit of a problem since Bregman is also a third baseman.  After initially flirting with the idea of Bregman playing second and Devers staying at third, they ultimately decided to keep Bregman at third and have Devers become the full-time DH.  He wasn't thrilled about this idea, but eventually accepted it.

A curve ball was thrown in when Red Sox first baseman Tristan Casas was lost for the year.  The thought was then that Devers could play first, a position he's never played before.  Devers didn't like that plan, either.  Things got so bad that Red Sox owner John Henry flew to Kansas City while the team was playing the Royals just to discuss it with him.  Ultimately, it was decided that Devers would remain the DH (which he has even with Bregman now also on the IL).

On the one hand, I can see Devers' point.  They already asked him to change positions once.  He did it.  Now they were asking him to change positions again, only a few months later.  He hadn't even fully adjusted to being a full-time DH yet.  So, it was about more than just not wanting to play first base.  Devers wanted clarity about what position they want him to play.  After all, he still has eight years left on his contract including this season.

Is he being a team player?  Absolutely not!  But that's where the communication issue comes in.  The Red Sox weren't up front with Devers about their pursuit of Bregman or their plans for what would happen if they signed him.  If they had, he might've been more accepting of the situation.  Ditto about the first base thing.  Speak to him about it privately before letting the media get wind of it.  That's what made things worse, and both the team and Devers ended up looking bad.

The complete opposite happened regarding the communication between Chisholm and the Yankees.  That actually goes back to last season.  When the Yankees traded for Jazz Chisholm, it was to be their third baseman, even though that wasn't his position in Miami.  He jumped at the opportunity and played a very serviceable third base as the Yankees won the AL pennant.  Then, with Gleyber Torres set to become a free agent, the Yankees let him walk and moved Chisholm back to his natural position of second.

He began the season as their regular second baseman before going on the injured list with an oblique injury at the end of April.  In the interim, Yankees third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera broke his ankle.  When Jazz was set to come back, he had a conversation with Aaron Boone.  The question was whether he'd play second or third when he came back.  Boone told him that he was leaning towards third.  Chisholm said "OK."

Would he have still agreed to play third even if he hadn't had a conversation with Boone beforehand?  Probably.  After all, the Marlins had him playing out of position in center field for a year and a half before trading him to the Yankees.  But letting him know the plan and seeing what he felt about it sure went a long way in getting Chisholm's buy-in.

This isn't the first time we've seen communication differences regarding position changes in Major League Baseball.  And the results have been similar to what we just saw with Rafael Devers and Jazz Chisholm.  When the communication is there, the player is willing or even excited to make the move.  When it isn't, the player is less than happy.

When the Rangers traded Alfonso Soriano to the Nationals, Washington's plan was to make Soriano their left fielder.  That was news to him.  He begrudgingly accepted the position change and actually turned into a serviceable left fielder for the remainder of his career.  But that did nothing to resolve the initial awkwardness of Soriano's first season in Washington.

Then you have the more recent examples of Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts.  Harper needed to have Tommy John surgery after the 2022 World Series, so he had to DH at first.  The Phillies also have an abundance of outfielders, so he volunteered to ease the logjam and play first base, where he won't need to make those long throws.  Harper has been so good at first that the position change has become permanent.

Mookie Betts, meanwhile, can play pretty much any position on the field.  And he's more than willing to play any of them.  Last year, the Dodgers wanted to make him their regular second baseman, but he ended up back in right field.  A move to the infield was still in the cards, though, and he's now their starting shortstop.  Mookie obviously has the ability to play short, but his buy-in was the big key.

There are plenty of others who've made a position change where both the player and team benefitted from it.  I'm not talking about somebody moving to first base when he got older, either.  I'm talking about Jackson Merrill, a career infielder, becoming the Padres' center fielder.  Or his teammate Fernando Tatis Jr. moving to right field.  Even Jose Altuve's nonsensical move to left field was done for the good of the team, which is why he was willing to do it.

It's easy to call out Rafael Devers and say he's not being a team player because he was unwilling to move to first base.  Which, in many ways, he was.  But it's a lot more complicated than that.  If the communication between him and the Red Sox had been better, it all could've been different.  Like it was with Jazz Chisholm and so many others.