BOSTON — If the buzzword of Monday evening’s post-trade videoconference with Red Sox president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow was “alignment,” then the theme of Rafael Devers’ media availability on Friday was "Don’t look back, you’re not going that way."

Hours before his first game against the franchise he’d been a part of since he was 16 years old, San Francisco’s new slugger spoke to reporters (with a translator) in his new home dugout at Oracle Park. Over the course of the 12-minute media session, Devers maintained he didn’t want to talk about the past, so much so that it was at least part of his answer to more than half a dozen questions.

He wasn’t surprised by the trade, he said, but asked if it was what he wanted, he reiterated, “That’s in the past. Those are not decisions that I control, and I’m leaving that in the past right now.”

He had a similar answer when asked if anything could have been done to repair the fractured relationship.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Devers said. “I want to concentrate on what’s in the future for me.”

Much has been made about the conscious uncoupling of Devers and the Red Sox last Sunday. There’s blame to go around: the Red Sox, for not being up front with him before they signed third baseman Alex Bregman, and Devers for how he responded, both in front of the media and behind the scenes with the front office.

On Friday, Devers alluded to being unhappy with how the Red Sox treated him. In particular, after moving him from third base to designated hitter during spring training, they asked him to learn first base when Triston Casas suffered his season-ending injury on May 2. When asked if he would’ve acquiesced to learning first base if the Red Sox had asked him during the initial position-change conversation in spring training, he said, “Yes.”

“I would say that I had put some good numbers over at Boston and I think that I do feel that I have earned some respect,” Devers said. “And if they would have asked me at the beginning of spring training, yes, I would have played (first base).”

But as to whether he felt disrespected by the Red Sox overall, Devers went back on message.

“What happened, happened,” he said. “Like I said, I don’t want to talk about the past. I just want to concentrate on my new team and my new teammates.”

He also saw some of his former teammates on Thursday, because the Red Sox had an off-day.

“It’s kind of strange to see them so soon,” Devers said. “We’re friends. I mean, whatever happened, happened, but they’re still my friends.”

He hadn’t spoken to Alex Cora, who’d been his manager for six of his eight big league seasons, but kept his comments positive.

“I don’t have anything good or bad to say about Alex. I just want to leave everything in the past,” he said. “I will say hi to him. I mean, we’re friends, I don’t have anything against him. We’re friends.”

Devers also briefly addressed reports that he’d been upset when rookie Kristian Campbell began learning first base. (Campbell also refuted the reports to reporters in Triple-A Worcester on Friday.)

“I didn’t say anything like that,” Devers said. “I really don’t want to talk about it, I just want to concentrate on what’s ahead for me.”

Devers’ aversion to learning a new position midseason was a driving force in the Red Sox trading him. Then, in his introductory presser in San Francisco, he said he would play wherever the Giants wanted, and immediately began working out at first base for the Giants on Tuesday. (The Giants don’t plan to play him at first during this weekend’s series.)

“I’m feeling comfortable, and like I said in the past,” Devers said, referencing the infamous clubhouse scrum when he spoke about the Red Sox approaching him about moving positions, “it’s not a position that you’re going to learn how to play overnight.”

After what he described as a “few hectic days, a long week” Devers said felt “very comfortable” in his new surroundings. He said it had been “a long time” since he felt so good in his professional life, but declined to elaborate on why.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “I’ve been happy. I feel very relaxed.”

Regrets? Apparently none. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, Devers did things his way when he was with the Red Sox, and said he would change “nothing.”

Though Devers seemed dead-set on closing his Boston chapter, he did have something to say to Red Sox Nation.

“I gave my 100% every time I went on the field,” he said. “I feel grateful for the fans that supported me, and just want to say thank you to them.”

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