Red Sox
Some of the rationale for trading Devers is understandable. Most of it falls somewhere between lousy and loathsome.
Playing nine innings while presuming Nico Harrison thinks the Red Sox pulled off a heist with the Rafael Devers trade …
1. Some of the rationale for trading Devers is understandable. Most of it falls somewhere between lousy and loathsome. Nothing about it bothers me more than the awful, awful, stupid, awful timing.
The Red Sox have been rolling — six wins in a row entering Tuesday (including a thoroughly satisfying sweep of the Yankees), eight in nine games, and 11 out of 16. They are back over .500, close to the last wild-card spot, and trending the right way for the first time since they went 16-11 in April.
Over the last two weeks, the Red Sox have become anticipated in that look-forward-to-the-game-all-day kind of way that they haven’t been since … I don’t know, October 2021? This stretch of excellent play — how about that Brayan Bello performance Sunday? — against the Rays and Yankees made it feel like the Sox had found something that we had been waiting to experience again for far too long.
2. And now they go and trade their best hitter during their best stretch of the season, after a weekend in which Fenway was as lively as it has been all season. Frustration with Devers’s refusal to play first base after Triston Casas’s season-ending injury and his overall lack of leadership for a player with a $331 million contract might have been among the reasons for the trade. Maybe the relationship was broken beyond repair, though Devers certainly seemed to be enjoying his designated-hitter existence.
But cynically — or perhaps reasonably considering how the Red Sox have operated since 2019 — I suspect noting his unwillingness to do what is best for the team is a way to validate management’s real intention: getting out of a contract they never wanted to give in the first place, but reluctantly did so only because of the backlash of the awful Mookie Betts trade.
3. The giveaway on the Red Sox’ true motivation is that the Giants are taking on the entire remaining salary — approximately $250 million — due Devers through 2033. There had to be a path where the Red Sox could have eaten, oh, $50 million or so of the deal and received someone who would actually help the team right now in the trade. Instead, they happily accepted a reliever (Jordan Hicks) with a 6.47 ERA and a toe injury, a 23-year-old lefthander (Kyle Harrison) who profiles to be an Andrew Heaney type, and two Single A kids, outfielder James Tibbs and reliever Jose Bello. They traded their best hitter and got nothing back for a team that just recently proved worthy of investment. It’s transparent, and it’s shameful.
4. Yes, Devers acted like a baby. The vow he clung to about being the third baseman for the long haul came from a previous administration. He should have recognized that. After the Casas injury, he should also have recognized that circumstances had changed, and playing first base was not only best for the team but would have put him in a great light. He needed to get over management’s apparent dishonesty about the pursuit of Alex Bregman, and he could not. And now he’s on the other coast, taking aim at far-off McCovey Cove. The deal isn’t the best thing for him, either.
5. With Devers’s contract off the books, maybe there is another deal to be made to help the big league club. I’ll believe it when I see it. It seems more likely that it will be spent on an assortment of mid-level players at the deadline, perhaps a long-term, team-friendly deal or two with any willing recently arrived prospects, and perhaps locking up Bregman — who just gained a ton of leverage — beyond this season.
6. So let’s see: There’s newcomers Hicks and Harrison, and lottery tickets Tibbs and Bello. There’s Connor Wong, still. And there’s Greg Weissert and Richard Fitts, acquired for Alex Verdugo. Then there’s 2023 comp pick Kristian Campbell, a talented but unorthodox prospect who is going through some difficulties as he attempts to adjust to pitchers’ adjustments. I just cannot believe this is all the Red Sox have to show for Rafael Devers, Mookie Betts, and Xander Bogaerts. The magical 2018 season feels so long ago.
7. For all of the nonsense and the ugly ending, I sure am going to miss watching that guy hit. It’s telling in all the right ways that Devers was an even better hitter in the postseason (.955 OPS, eight home runs in 89 at-bats) than in the regular season. And he’s having what may end up being his best season. After the 0-for-19 start, he hit .292 with a .960 OPS and 15 homers in 253 at-bats.
8. Without him, the kids — Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, in particular — are going to have to produce right away, while the role players who have been delivering, such as Abraham Toro, Romy Gonzalez, and Carlos Narváez, must sustain their production. Devers might not leave a void in the clubhouse, but he’s leaving a huge one in the lineup.
9. In terms of pure shock value, this deal was closest to the Nomar Garciaparra trade at the 2004 deadline, even though Devers was never in the ballpark of Nomaahhh’s peak popularity. (He was better than Jeter, you know.) I’d love to know what Theo Epstein, the architect of that bold move, thinks of this one.
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