In a surprising development, Boston Red Sox great Pedro Martinez believes pal and long-time teammate David Ortiz likely added to the drama between the team and star Rafael Devers that ended in the trade that sent him to San Francisco this week.
Ortiz currently serves as an ambassador and advisor for the Red Sox. And as a legend of the club still involved with the franchise, he tried to diffuse the growing tension between the organization and their top star earlier this year. However, Martinez believes Ortiz may have made things worse with the way he handled trying to fix the situation.
“Big Papi also made a mistake in spring training by speaking in front of the cameras about some of the things that he needed to tell Devers,” Martinez said in a chat this week with Bleacher Report. “That should have been handled in-house. Big Papi should have gone out with Devers to talk about those things. Not openly speak in the field because the cameras are able to pick up everything. Every whisper that we have out there is being picked up by the microphones. That was the first mistake from Big Papi.
“The other thing is, I don’t like to hear those comments after things happened like that. I would love for Big Papi to come over. Grab Devers. Go to a restaurant, go to his house, throw a barbecue, and talk to Devers in his house.”
The three-time All-Star’s career in Boston came to a surprising end this week when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants. The situation seemed to be unfixable after the 28-year-old twice refused position changes over the last six months. He was the third homegrown star to see his run with the franchise end much sooner than expected. Following Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts’ departures in recent years.
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