ARLINGTON, Texas — Rafael Devers has taken ground balls at third base on the dirt at Globe Life Field before each of the Red Sox’ first two games of the regular season. So does that mean Boston is keeping him ready for potential fill-in duties at third base?

“No,” said manager Alex Cora. “Raffy is the DH.”

Cora, speaking more candidly about Devers’ position future than he had at any point during spring training, said Friday that the Red Sox do not plan on playing Devers at third base at all this season. On days when starter Alex Bregman needs a rest, Boston will go with a different fill-in option — likely Romy Gonzalez, for now — instead of Devers.

“With Raffy, we had a conversation and we talked about it,” Cora said. “He’s DHing. He’s the DH of the Boston Red Sox.”

All winter, Red Sox officials, including Cora, repeatedly described Devers as the team’s third baseman (as he has been since 2018.) After signing Bregman at the beginning of camp, decision-makers were mum on where he would play, keeping open the possibility that Bregman would move to second base. At the same time, Devers emphatically — and repeatedly — said he was unwilling to move to DH during a media availability on February 17.

Eventually, tempers cooled and Devers agreed, reluctantly, to help the team in whichever way he could. As expected, Boston opened the regular season with Bregman at third base, Devers at DH and rookie Kristian Campbell at second base.

That alignment will be the one fans should expect to see on an everyday basis. Devers will continue to work out at third base before games, a team official said Friday, as part of his pregame conditioning routine. But he won’t see any time there in games — at least for now.

Cora has long believed that players who are given a new position should stick there as much as possible in an effort to get comfortable. In 2022, when Trevor Story moved from shortstop to second base for the year, Cora refused to play him at short on days Xander Bogaerts was off. Last year, Boston avoided playing DH Masataka Yoshida in field — except for one inning in emergency duty in April — as he transitioned to the everyday DH role.

Cora said he first came to realize the importance of such consistency while serving as the general manager of Team Puerto Rico during the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

“I lived through it in the WBC in 2017,” Cora said. “I still remember, we asked Carlos (Correa) to play third base. There was an off day for Francisco (Lindor) and Edwin Rodríguez, who was the manager, was like, ‘Hey, do you want to tell Carlos he’s playing short?’ I said, ‘No, you do it. You’re the manager.’ Edwin asked Carlos if tomorrow, he wanted to play short and he said, ‘No, I’m the third baseman.‘”

Devers’ first season as a full-time DH did not get off to a good start in a 5-2 Red Sox win on Opening Day. The slugger was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and looked lost at the plate at times, whiffing on seven pitches (including five Nathan Eovaldi curveballs). Unsurprisingly, Cora isn’t concerned after just one day — though Devers did have an abnormal spring training, getting just 15 plate appearances in games due to a slow build-up aimed at rehabbing injured shoulders.

“He has done it before,” Cora said. “I know people make a big deal out of yesterday but I don’t think that’s the first 0-for-4 he has had. He’s working with Rosey (assistant hitting coach Ben Rosenthal) in the cage. The last six years, we’ve seen some DHs and some routines. One of them, he hit a lot (J.D. Martinez). The other one didn’t hit (Justin Turner). He’ll find it.

“One thing is that we don’t him to overthink it. Don’t get caught up in the whole thing. He’ll be OK.”

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