Making Sense Out Of A Nonsense Rafael Devers Trade
The Red Sox continue to get in their own way
The Boston Red Sox felt great after sweeping their division rival New York Yankees, but the vibes quickly changed Sunday night.
FanSided’s Robert Murray first reported that the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants for for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs and Jose Bello. Yes, you read that right.
“That’s all the Red Sox got?” one agent told Murray.
That’s really all you need to know about Boston’s return. Hicks had a 6.47 ERA at the time of the trade, and Harrison is a mid innings eater. Tibbs was the Giants’ top outfield prospect, something the Red Sox have plenty of, and Bello won’t be relevant in the short term.
Analysts already comapred this trade to the Luka Doncic trade, but even that would be generous. At least the Dallas Mavericks got a borderline MVP candidate.
Obviously, for Red Sox fans’, the horrors of the Mookie Betts traded resurfaced. If you blocked that trade from your memory, Boston traded Betts and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong. Verdugo remains a shithead, Downs stunk and Wong is fine.
Similar to Betts, Devers was supposed to be a Red Sox for life. But management fumbled the offseason and didn’t properly communicate to Devers that they were going to sign Alex Bregman. The 28-year-old wasn’t exactly mature about his switch to designated hitter, but cooler heads prevailed in spring training. However, things got worse when chief baseball officer Craig Breslow asked Devers to move to first base after Triston Casas’ season-ending injury. There might have been a translation issue, but there was clearly friction between Devers and the front office.
That’s was partially why, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Devers wanted out of Boston. And to no one’s surprise, the Red Sox smear campaign came in when The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham reported that the club felt that Devers’ 313.5 million contract “comes with responsibilities to do what is right for the team and that Devers did not live up to those responsibilities. They had enough and they traded him.”
On one hand, yes, star players typically are asked to sacrifice a bit to help the team out. On the other hand, that shouldn’t always be the expectation. Devers was well within his rights to do what he felt like what was best for his career. After all, he saw Betts shipped out of town, and Xander Bogaerts kicked out, too.
Breslow’s relationship with Devers was fractured, and Alex Cora seemingly didn’t want to do anything about the situation. And yet this was the best they could do? These men’s egos couldn’t be checked, and this franchise-altering move had to be made? It’s pathetic beyond belief that feelings came in the way of winning baseball games.
It’s not a hot take to say Breslow’s job is on thin ice. The Red Sox went a game over .500 and were a half game out of the American League wild card after Sunday’s win. Breslow better hope that Boston makes the playoffs, and he’s probably banking on Devers’ game falling off like Bogaerts’ did and doesn’t continue to elevate like Betts’ did. Good luck with that, buddy.
Last week, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey reflected on the 2011 blockbuster Zach Wheeler-Carlos Beltran trade. The deal didn’t work out well for San Francisco, but Posey loved the big move, and he made another one Sunday night. It’s the kind of team building the Red Sox could learn from, but instead, they’re stuck in their regressive ways.
You get told by adults when you’re a kid that you’ll “understand when you get older.” But as I’ve grown older, I’ve understood that there are plenty of adults who have no idea what they’re doing. I’ve understood that adults are so petty that they’d trade a superstar talent for next to nothing. The Doncic trade and Tom Thibodeau firing was a reminder of that for NBA fans, and MLB fans got that taste of reality with the Devers trade.
Thank you for reading until the end! I try to add something fun to the end of my posts, and since I’m a big K-pop and pro wrestling fan, I’ll recommend a song or match that may or may not be related to the post. All Elite Wrestling recently released the full match of Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega’s classic at Forbidden Door in 2023. I highly recommend you check it out, and I’m sure Red Sox fans would love to give Craig Breslow and Tiger Driver ‘91.