Article: BREAKING: Rafael Devers Traded To San Francisco Giants

[king koji]

Rafael Devers has been traded to the San Francisco Giants, with Jeff Passan confirming this deal has been finalized.

Devers has had a tumultuous relationship with the current Red Sox front office, led by Craig Breslow. During the offseason, there was public drama surrounding the signing of Alex Bregman, who plays Devers' preferred position of third base. After that settled down, issues arose yet again when it was floated that Devers might be a good fit for first base, recently vacated by the season-ending injury to Triston Casas.

Coming to Boston in the trade is right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks, left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs, and more. More details will be announced as they become available.

Tibbs, now in High A, is the Giants' fourth-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline. He is a left-handed corner outfielder with limited athleticism and could end up at first base in the near future. The 22-year-old is having a breakthrough season with the bat, posting an .857 OPS in High-A Eugene.

Also coming to Boston is veteran right-handed pitcher Hicks. The 28-year-old righty had a somewhat successful transition back to the rotation last season after years in the bullpen, posting a 4.10 ERA for the Giants with weak peripherals around that ERA. He has made nine starts in 2025 but has pitched to a terrible 6.47 ERA, though his 3.59 FIP suggests there is a large amount of bad luck in play. Even accounting for the low FIP, Hicks's 8.0 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 isn't lighting the baseball world on fire, either. 

Thanks to @king koji for breaking this on the Talk Sox forums.

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[WS1967]

From MLB trade Rumors

[king koji]

Already a thread on it. 

[moonslav59]

I'm falling out of my chair!

[redsoxrules]

Why trade if you're getting garbage in return? Wow, they got nothing for him. Like wtf

[moonslav59]

Brez has balls the size of Jupiter!

[moonslav59]

Will he play 1B w SFG?

LOL!!!!

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, redsoxrules said:

Why trade if you're getting garbage in return? Wow, they got nothing for him. Like wtf

Kyle Harrison was the 23rd ranked prospect in all of MLB, last year. We must really like him.

Jordan Hicks looks like an attempt to move the money part a tiny bit in SF's favor, as he is owed $12M x 3 more years. (His AAV is $11M, so the Sox gain a lot there.)

[FredLynn]

Mods: can you merge all the threads on this topic?

[moonslav59]

So, Mayer is our 3Bman for an undisclosed amount of time.

[moonslav59]

I'm still in shock.

Devers forevers a Giant.

[moonslav59]

Does Harrison have 3 or 4 arbs after next season's last pre-arb year?

4 or 5 years of control?

[FredLynn]

Didn’t get much for him did we…?

Looks like Henry is dumping salary. Cheap SOB.

[Deja Doh]

That's a crazy trade.  Can't see the value we are getting back, but getting rid of lack of hustle is okay.

[Larry Cook]

Why not birdsong???

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, FredLynn said:

Didn’t get much for him did we…?

Looks like Henry is dumping salary. Cheap SOB.

Harrison was a top 25 prospect, last year. Maybe we think he can be the next Crochet.

While Devers has enormous value, he value per dollar spent is in negative territory, according to BTV. The age old question will be: does JH pocket the money, most of the money or repurpose it to boost us in an area we need more than a FT DH.

Maybe Bregman can return earlier as a DH. Maybe we still have faith in a Yoshida return.

Maybe this was made to free up the OF logjam, once Abreu returns.

Is the downgrade from Devers to Duran at DH and Anthony in LF vs Duran more than the plus we get in the rotation and farm?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[FredLynn]

3 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

That's a crazy trade.  Can't see the value we are getting back, but getting rid of lack of hustle is okay.

I won’t miss Devers crappy attitude. 

[king koji]

Good trade by the braintrust. Great "hitter," but an aging, weight-gaining anchor, who is a young "full-time" DH. He's not Papi, he's not Manny, so, great to unload this albatross. Going hard after Soto was the proper move, and now we can go hard after future guys.

[moonslav59]

Will it be Duran to DH?

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF Abreu/Refsnyder

or...

Once Bregman returns, some infielder to DH? (KC, Mayer, Bregman, Story rotation?)

[mvp 78]

This sucks. I told my family at dinner and my daughter got so pissed. Raffy was her favorite player. “To the freakin’ Giants?!?!?” Know she really knows how it is to be a Sox fan. 

[FredLynn]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Harrison was a top 25 prospect, last year. Maybe we think he can be the next Crochet.

While Devers has enormous value, he value per dollar spent is in negative territory, according to BTV. The age old question will be: does JH pocket the money, most of the money or repurpose it to boost us in an area we need more than a FT DH.

Maybe Bregman can return earlier as a DH. Maybe we still have faith in a Yoshida return.

Maybe this was made to free up the OF logjam, once Abreu returns.

Is the downgrade from Devers to Duran at DH and Anthony in LF vs Duran more than the plus we get in the rotation and farm?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I don’t see how the OF logjam gets fixed since none of our OF is an IF unless one of them becomes a DH. We are a bit LH heavy. If Henry just keeps the money as I suspect he will people should boycott the team.

[Deja Doh]

We need to let the young guys play.  When we all saw his lack of hustle on that ground out to 2nd a week ago, and Cora rolling his eyes, you know he had to go.  The Giants haven't had a 30 homer season since Barry in 2004.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, king koji said:

Good trade by the braintrust. Great "hitter," but an aging, weight-gaining anchor, who is a young "full-time" DH. He's not Papi, he's not Manny, so, great to unload this albatross. Going hard after Soto was the proper move, and now we can go hard after future guys.

He's gaining weight?

Before the DH and 1B issues, was he an attitude issue? 

The guy has been our best hitter for a long time. He's been a Yankee killer and RBI machine for years.

Until the injury, last August, he was on pace for a career high in OPS and was pretty close, this year, too.

The FT DH thing is valid.

The $30M a year thing, into his mid to later 30's, too.

The unwillingness to play 1B has been beaten to death, and apparently Cora never asked him to do it, but I do agree that no DH is worth $30M a year. Add inflation adjustments and Papi never made near that.

All I can say is that JH better spend teh savings, or we are right back to square one with him, again. This cancels out the Bregman signing, financially.

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I don’t see how the OF logjam gets fixed since none of our OF is an IF unless one of them becomes a DH. 

I clearly explained Duran to DH.

[mvp 78]

Can’t wait to read the Globe article that kick Raffy in the butt on the way out the door.

[Nick]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Will it be Duran to DH?

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF Abreu/Refsnyder

or...

Once Bregman returns, some infielder to DH? (KC, Mayer, Bregman, Story rotation?)

I think it was Bres's preference not to have full time DH.

[vegasbob]

18 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Didn’t get much for him did we…?

Looks like Henry is dumping salary. Cheap SOB.

No, the salary dump is minor compared to the dumping of Devers as a a problem child. 

Never saw better news since 2018 ended with a WS championship

[mvp 78]

Get Cora to manage the players?

 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, Deja Doh said:

We need to let the young guys play.  When we all saw his lack of hustle on that ground out to 2nd a week ago, and Cora rolling his eyes, you know he had to go.  The Giants haven't had a 30 homer season since Barry in 2004.

Those eye rolls were telling.

Cora not even daring to ask Devers to play 1B was too, if we believe what many say happened and did not happen.

I really liked Devers. He looked like a kid who really loved playing the game. He produced like no other Sox player since the Betts and JD days. That may not be saying much, since we've had a pretty weak team with a revolving door of guys names Renfroe, Duvall, O'Neill & Turner.

This is truly amazing, shocking and a bit scary.

[Nick]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

He's gaining weight?

Before the DH and 1B issues, was he an attitude issue? 

The guy has been our best hitter for a long time. He's been a Yankee killer and RBI machine for years.

Until the injury, last August, he was on pace for a career high in OPS and was pretty close, this year, too.

The FT DH thing is valid.

The $30M a year thing, into his mid to later 30's, too.

The unwillingness to play 1B has been beaten to death, and apparently Cora never asked him to do it, but I do agree that no DH is worth $30M a year. Add inflation adjustments and Papi never made near that.

All I can say is that JH better spend teh savings, or we are right back to square one with him, again. This cancels out the Bregman signing, financially.

I like the idea of this organization really zeroing in on pitching.

It frees up to keep all of our young players at the major league level.