Could Rafael Devers return to 3B if Red Sox need to put Alex Bregman on IL?

Alex Cora prefaced the answer by saying he didn t want to jump to conclusions But the answer to whether he thought Alex Bregman is trending toward a stint on the injured list was still yes I saw him this morning he s like It s worse than I thought the Red Sox manager announced of his third baseman who underwent an MRI on Saturday Bregman exited Friday afternoon s contest in the fifth inning with what the club initially publicized as right-quad tightness After initially trying to stretch his line-drive single into a double he hesitated on the base path and returned to first where he straightaway called for a trainer then walked off the field and into the dugout tunnel Postgame Bregman communicated reporters that he felt the quad issue as he rounded first and didn t want to exacerbate it by attempting to push through Regardless of whether Bregman remains day-to-day or officially goes on the injured list the Red Sox will be without their majority of consistent offensive contributor for an indeterminate amount of time and must find procedures to fill the hole at the hot corner Roster flexibility and versatility comes into play Cora revealed Every day is going to be something different presumably We ll mix and match and we re going to maximize our roster if an IL stint happens Devers back at third Rafael Devers isn t in the mix at present despite being not only the association s longest-tenured participant and therefore largest part Fenway-familiar and bulk experienced at third career regular-season games Cora initially stated no to his new designated hitter returning to the field then backtracked moments later saying We made a decision and we ll continue to talk I m not saying we re gonna close the door and all that but we feel very peaceful with Rafael Devers as DH Devers entered Saturday hitting an astronomical over games tied for the MLB lead leading the majors with RBI and leading the American League with walks With two home runs on Friday he moved ahead of Rico Petrocelli for sole possession of th on the franchise s all-time home-run list Devers is one home run away from tying Jim Rice for bulk homers by a Red Sox performer before turning and his birthday isn t until October He s dominating the strike zone Cora reported He s gone through stretches like that in his career and they ve been really good but this is the preponderance consistent I ve seen him After a historically-high strikeout-filled start to the season Devers is punching out at clip nearly a full point lower than last year and walk rate is in the th MLB percentile and is over better than his previous career mark and he s hitting the ball harder than ever before hard-hit rate th MLB percentile and mph average exit velocity th percentile Maybe we re doing it right maybe we re doing it wrong I don t know Cora reported I know that the guy is raking He s the best DH in the American League right now If he keeps continuing to do this he s going to be in the All-Star Match as a DH he s gonna win a Silver Slugger as a DH Mix-and-match Beyond Devers the pickings are slim Abraham Toro leads the group with career games at third No one else has more than Romy Gonzalez s and with his IL stint taking significantly longer than expected Cora disclosed he ll now need to go on a rehab assignment before being activated I revealed that he can play third I m not saying he s a possibility Cora clarified on Ceddanne Rafaela but in episode of urgency we know he can play second he can play short he can play third and if you give him a first-base mitt I bet he can do it too Nick Sogard will play his th career big-league battle at third in the top of Saturday s doubleheader with the visiting Baltimore Orioles Notably Cora didn t rule out bringing up top prospect Marcelo Mayer for his long-awaited debut There s a lot of guys in the conversation Cora commented when inquired about Mayer Roster construction comes into play Guys in the minor leagues you know how they fit the roster and all that stuff so there s a lot of conversations Mayer has very little third-base experience though a natural shortstop he s played of his career professional games at short and just six total games at third If the Red Sox were to decisively call him up it s more likely they d have him play shortstop or second base We ll be okay I mean obviously he s a big part of our offense Cora stated of Bregman who s slashed with hits doubles HR runs and RBI through games We just gotta find approaches to total runs in a different way and we re prepared for that We ll likely mix-and-match a little more be more aggressive in certain areas pinch-hit and all that and we gotta go to work the Sox skipper continued Nobody s going to feel sorry for us That s the nature of the business And if we feel that we are this good and we have a chance to play in October then you have to overcome stuff like this That we might lose one of our best players Yeah you know it is what it is right We just got to continue to keep getting better and play the battle the right way and hopefully we can continue to win games like this week