Rafael Devers won’t completely stick it to Red Sox in upcoming series

This weekend's series between the Giants and Red Sox got infinitely more interesting last Sunday when the Red Sox, out of nowhere, shipped Rafael Devers to San Francisco in exchange for four players.

It's rare in sports that you get a 'revenge' kind of showdown with the feelings this raw, and with drama aplenty for both the player and the team that traded said player out of town to simply be done with him. To be completely honest with you, it's a rare, free trip to the main stage of The Unfiltered Spite Zone. Festivals can headline their weekends with this kind of potential fury, really.

But when the teams take to the field Friday night at Oracle Park, the Giants and Devers will not completely stick it to Boston and have him play first base, a position he had no interest in playing for the 2025 Red Sox.

"Yeah that's not gonna happen this weekend, we haven't gotten there," Giants manager Bob Melvin told KNBR ahead of this series. "It's going to take a little bit more time than having him at first base during the Red Sox series."

The online wondering as to whether or not Devers would line up at first base during this series against his former club came following video of Devers working out at first base, and with the 28-year-old Devers admitting that he would be open to playing first base for the Giants.

“I can’t wait to start playing [at first base]," Devers said through an interpreter at his introductory press conference with the Giants. “I’m eager to go out there and go play and see what I can do.”

That same willingness from Devers wasn't quite there when the Red Sox asked him to potentially play first base when Triston Casas went down with a season-ending knee injury in May.

"I don't think, for me personally, it's the best decision after [the Red Sox] asked me to play a different position," Devers said last month. "And I only had two months playing this position to all of a sudden have me try to play another position. So, from my end, it doesn't seem like a good decision."

And catching up with The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham in San Francisco ahead of the Sox-Giants series, Devers explained that situation further, and the details of the conversation he had with Red Sox owner John Henry.

“They wanted me to play first base. I told [Henry] they eventually, yes. I could play first base but maybe next year," Devers, who had been Boston's designated hitter all season, told Abraham. "It was not my fault that players get hurt. I felt like if another player got hurt, they would move me again.”

It's unclear exactly what timeline the Giants have Devers on when it comes to game reps at first base, but it will not happen Friday night, robbing us all of a moment that'd certainly lead to some additional friction between the parties.

Instead, Devers will remain at the DH spot he's occupied in his first three games as a Giant, with a 3-for-11 start featuring one double and an RBI.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, will look to keep it rolling after rifling off wins in two of their first three games of the post-Devers era, and with the club just a single decimal point out of the final wild card spot in the American League.