Kristian Campbell refutes report of animosity with Rafael Devers: ‘We were always cool’

The decision by the Boston Red Sox to trade star slugger Rafael Devers was an incredibly complicated one on all front that goes far deeper than just on-field production. But according to Red Sox rookie outfielder Kristian Campbell, one recently reported factor in entirely untrue in regards to an alleged rift between he and Devers.

Earlier this week, Joon Lee of Yahoo Sports reported that Devers was “upset” when Campbell supposedly volunteered to learn the first base position in light of Triston Casas suffering a season-ending injury.

It turns out, according to Campbell, that things didn’t go down as Lee suggest they did. Speaking with reporters from Triple-A Worcester after being sent down earlier this week, Campbell made it incredibly clear that he and Devers have never had any problems, and that the Red Sox organization actually came up to him and asked if he could play first base.

“Yeah, that was false,” said Campbell. “First off, Raffy never came to me. Never had a problem with it. We were always cool. He is an extremely great friend, extremely great person. Very kind person and a good teammate. Secondly, I never went to the Red Sox wanting to play first base. They came to me and asked me if I could play first base because we didn’t have one at the time. That’s when (Triston) Casas went down. I said I would do it if it makes the team better. I would be willing to learn the position. That’s basically how it went down.”

Meanwhile, Rafael Devers addressed the situation as well while speaking to reporters ahead of his first game against Boston since being traded. Devers similarly detailed that he never said he was angry at Campbell.

“Again, I didn’t say anything like that,” said Devers, via his interpreter when asked if there was any validity to the past reports. “I really don’t want to talk about it. I want to concentrate on what is ahead for me.”

Devers wasn’t all that interested in discussing much about his past with the Red Sox or what went into eventually being traded. So perhaps he isn’t giving the full story about how he was truly feeling about Campbell learning the first base position.

But given what Campbell had to say on the matter, it sounds as if the past report was incorrect on the matter. Or at the very least, wasn’t accurate in regards to how Campbell was first prompted to learn first base.

Either way, Devers should have plenty of motivation to show the Red Sox what they are missing during the weekend series between the Red Sox and Devers’ new team, the San Francisco Giants.