The futures of the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants are linked together for as long as Rafael Devers remains on his current contract.
Boston traded Devers to San Francisco with 8 1/2 years and $254.5 million left on his deal in June. And surprisingly enough, the teams went in opposite directions for the rest of the season, with the Giants falling out of the playoff picture and the Red Sox making it back to October after a three-year drought.
Because San Francisco’s season finished so poorly, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey went in a radical new direction with the team’s managerial hire, tabbing longtime University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to take over from Bob Melvin.
Cora’s thoughts on Giants’ Vitello hire
It was the most stunning hire of the offseason, as no other college coach has ever gone directly to a manager job in Major League Baseball, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora wasn’t as shocked as most.
Cora recently sounded off on why the Giants’ hiring Vitello was not only unsurprising to him, but altogether logical, both from a general and specific point of view.
“It’s happened in the pitching department,” Cora told MassLive’s Sean McAdam, in reference to pitching coachesChris Johnson of the Minnesota Twins and Chris Fetter of the Detroit Tigers, “and it was just a matter of time until somebody was going to take a calculated risk.
“This isn’t just being successful at Tennessee; he’s a guy who has a great reputation. People have talked about him for years. He’s not that young, he’s 48 — and it was a matter of time for someone to go this route.”
Cora also invoked Devers by hinting that one of the biggest adjustments Vitello will have to make will be managing professional players and their various attitudes and egos.
“I bet he won’t wait until spring training to start building relationships,” said Cora, per McAdam. “There are some alpha dogs in that clubhouse — you’ve got Matt Chapman, you’ve got Raffy, (Robbie) Ray, Willy Adames. It’s kind of like what I did when I got the job here – I flew to Fort Myers, to the Dominican to meet with players.”
The Red Sox will host Devers as a Giant for the first time next August, with Vitello and Cora duking it out on the lineup cards.
