ESPN Projects Glass-Half-Full Result For Red Sox's Devers-Bregman 3B Puzzle

How will these two each fare during the 2025 campaign?

Alex Bregman of the Boston Red Sox participates in drills at JetBlue Park at Fenway South on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. / andrew west / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It's hard to project what will happen with the Boston Red Sox's third base position this season without knowing who will play the position.

Newcomer Alex Bregman is the American League's defending Gold Glover winner, but Rafael Devers understandably doesn't want to give up his position to become a full-time designated hitter, especially because he got a $313.5 million extension to play that position two winters ago.

Further complicating matters, Devers hasn't yet appeared in a spring training game, having pushed back his original start date of this past Wednesday. Normally, the Red Sox's primary concern would be keeping him healthy for the full season, but they'd ideally like to know this year whether his third base defense is ready for action.

On Thursday, ESPN's Eric Karabell projected how the full season would play out for both Bregman and Devers. And depending on one's level of optimism about the 2025 Red Sox, the results could be viewed as either glass-half-full or glass-half-empty.

"3B Rafael Devers starts the season on the IL and then hits 32 HR as the regular DH," Karabell wrote. "3B Alex Bregman wins another AL Gold Glove at 3B, but the bigger problem is a disappointing .322 OBP, and only 19 HR."

On one hand, 32 home runs would be an improvement on Devers' total of 28 from last season, and the move to designated hitter could help keep his power from dipping off after the All-Star break, as it has in two of the last three seasons.

On the other, Bregman experiencing a dip in offensive production at Fenway Park would be far from ideal. Dipping from 26 to 19 home runs, unless it were accompanied by a similar spike in doubles, would be alarming, especially since the Red Sox would be stuck paying him $40 million again in 2026.

But at the end of the day, all the Red Sox really need from these two is stability. Even if the scenarios above aren't optimal, they combine to form an output that's better than what Boston got from its third base and designated hitter slots last year. And with an improved pitching staff, that should be enough to get to October.

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