Red Sox’ Devers doesn’t ‘prioritize’ ‘front-facing outreach’

Red Sox

Devers, among other Red Sox players, was originally scheduled to appear at the yearly event to meet fans.

Rafael Devers may be the Red Sox’ highest-paid player, but he isn’t concerned with being the face of the franchise.

Boston’s star slugger was originally scheduled to appear at the team’s annual fan fest, formerly known as Winter Weekend held at Springfield’s MGM casino. But as of Friday, Devers, among several other players, will not attend the single-day Fenway Fest on Saturday.

Pedro Martinez, Kutter Crawford, Justin Slaten, and newcomer Walker Buehler were among those also set to appear at the event, but were removed from the list the day before.

Fred Lynn was supposed to attend, but was unable to fly to Boston due to flight cancellations, he shared on X.

It is also supposed to snow in Boston on Saturday.

As for Devers, he has historically not attended the event, so it was a bit surprising that he was slated to in the first place.

According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, the third baseman isn’t able to appear “due to a last-minute scheduling conflict.”

Later on Friday, Cotillo offered perhaps a more legitimate reason as to why Devers won’t be at this year’s event.

“Privately, team officials have expressed a desire to push Devers to do more front-facing outreach when it comes to things like fan interaction, promotional appearances and marketing opportunities in an effort to brand him as the face of the franchise,” Cotillo wrote. “The mild-mannered Devers has never viewed doing so as a priority.”

Devers has long intentionally stayed out of the spotlight during his career. Most recently, he caught flak for not speaking with reporters after a loss in September. According to MassLive’s Christopher Smith, Devers had been informed that the media wanted to speak with him, but he left anyway.

Devers surprised many before the start of last season when he was outspoken about the moves he wanted the Red Sox to make. The $300 million slugger publicly commented on the state of the team during spring training.

“Everybody knows what we need. You know what we need, and they know what we need,” Devers said via a translator at Boston’s spring training facility last February. “It’s just some things that I can’t say out loud, but everybody that knows the organization and knows the game knows what we need.”

Devers’s concerns about the quality of the roster last year stemmed from the Red Sox’ lack of transactions following team chairman Tom Werner’s infamous “full throttle” comments.

Since then, however, Devers seems to have returned to his reserved self.

His lack of presence at the team’s fan fest shouldn’t be cause for concern. Boston knows who Devers is, and they knew his personality when they extended his contract.

All Devers needs to do is continue to produce on the diamond in a Red Sox uniform.

He put it best himself a few years ago.

“They pay me good, I play baseball, and I hit homers,” Devers said during a batting practice session in 2021.