One of the sugar plums that danced in my head during that all-too-brief period when ownership promised us a “full throttle” off-season was addressing our Rafael Devers problem.
I had actually begun working on an article that lobbied to “make the hot corner hot again.” It involved various schemes of mine to rectify our infield’s porous defense, and boy did Rafael Devers get the full heat of my laser-focused gaze. Last year’s botched defense was a team problem, of course, but I was brainstorming at a time when we knew Trevor Story was returning at full strength, and we’d acquired Vaughn Grissom at second.