Article: BREAKING: Rafael Devers Traded To San Francisco Giants

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

No Woa.

The guy was dogging it- more than once.

Cora bent over backwards to not pressure Devers to play 1B, as his boss was pushing, and Devers had him rolling his eyes by dogging it and pouting.

I've been in Devers corner for years, but the eye rolling said it all to me.

Am I happy we traded our best player for future assets and nebulous financial flexibility for some unknown later time? HELL NO!

Can we ever replace his bat? Not likely.

Does this look like a 3rd down punt? Yes.

I'm not sure it was a bad idea, though.

 

 

 

 

Replacing Devers' bat? Isn't that Anthony's job? I certainly hope he succeeds. Roman seems like a team player.

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

But, but, but he was a thirdbaseman and loved being one.  Breslow took that away from him.  And Cora did his best to make it work by convincing Devers to embrace DH, which he did.  He also played in every single Sox game this season.   DH made him a better hitter. 

This is a tired old narrative, and I never fell for it. DH did not make Devers a better hitter. He was better, last year, before the injury and had a better year way back when as a 3Bman.

To me, Cora made a mistake, if he told Devers he was going to DH only. With Casas being a china doll, he should have had some foresight.

So freakin what! Bloom promised Devers 3B for longer than it lasted. Things change in baseball, and no player is above it. I dont care if Cora promised Devers $100M, if he ever played anything but DH. That does not matter. 

We needed him to play 1B, and the fact that Toro & Romy ended up doing fine does not change what Devers did, and how Devers backed Cora into a corner then dogged it more than once, which was total disrespect to Cora, the team and the fans.

I'm all for giving people a second chance, but to me, Devers used up his second and 3rd chances in just a few short months.

Bye bye.

 

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Replacing Devers' bat? Isn't that Anthony's job? I certainly hope he succeeds. Roman seems like a team player.

We can hope, but you really want to expect Anthony to be Devers, year 1?

[Maxbialystock]

10 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Devers sucked defensively. That’s the difference. He’s an excellent hitter and will be for a long time.

Unfortunately he’s a me first guy and that’s a poor teammate on a young team. 

 

46 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Injuries are part of the game and are largely unpredictable. Of course if you’re overweight like Casas and Devers you’re going to be more prone to injuries. Casas’ injury could have happened to anyone. It’s a freak injury. 

Two freakish in 2 back to back seasons with the result that he played in 94 games out of a possible 324 games.  I agree accidents can happen to anyone, but in Casas' case I'm suspicious because of his height and weight and how they happened.  

So we'll just have to wait and see.  

[moonslav59]

33 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

 But my real point is that we absolutely know he was having a good year at DH even though he vastly preferred 3b.  So why the heck move him to 1b when Casas stunk and was easily replaced?  At 1b he would struggle to master the position, no doubt commit errors, and very possibly have his OPS go down.  

You make unfounded assumptions about Devers ability to play 1B.

Yes, Casas was easy to improve on on D. Your idea that he was doomed to hit .550 forever is unfounded, too.

What made Devers a really bad 3Bman was his arm. he was okay with the glove and quickness, and 1B is easier. Sure, Devers may have struggled, but i dont assume he'd suck like you do.

Maybe he hits better, because his main beef was he wanted to be "on the field." Nobody knows, and neither of us can assume anything. Not Casas sucking all year, not Devers batting worse as a 1Bman.

To me, there is no evidence that shows being a DH helped Devers hit better. None.

[moonslav59]

41 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Mookie Betts has been terrific at SS, but this year is his lowest OPS, .766, in 12 freaking years  in MLB.  And Mookie is a much better athlete than Raffy.  

Yes. I'm glad you brought him up.

Did he pout, dog it and moan when moved?

[Maxbialystock]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

This is a tired old narrative, and I never fell for it. DH did not make Devers a better hitter. He was better, last year, before the injury and had a better year way back when as a 3Bman.

To me, Cora made a mistake, if he told Devers he was going to DH only. With Casas being a china doll, he should have had some foresight.

So freakin what! Bloom promised Devers 3B for longer than it lasted. Things change in baseball, and no player is above it. I dont care if Cora promised Devers $100M, if he ever played anything but DH. That does not matter. 

We needed him to play 1B, and the fact that Toro & Romy ended up doing fine does not change what Devers did, and how Devers backed Cora into a corner then dogged it more than once, which was total disrespect to Cora, the team and the fans.

I'm all for giving people a second chance, but to me, Devers used up his second and 3rd chances in just a few short months.

Bye bye.

 

OK, DH didn't make him better, but it sure helped that as the DH he never missed a game.  

I doubt that Cora promised anything, but I'm sure he told a distraught Devers to embrace the DH position, which he did.  

I think you have made a good case that Devers was/is better suited for 1b than 3b.    But guess what?  No one in Sox management said that for 8 straight seasons.   You remember Dalbec?  That would have been a perfect year to switch Devers, but it never came even close to happening.

So all of  sudden in comes Bregman, a terrific 3d baseman and hitter.  But did anyone suggest 1b to Devers then?  Nosiree.  Casas owned that position even though he only played 63 games last season.  Heck, forget last season.  The Sox loved him this season with his .580 OPS.  He literally owned 1b, and there was no place for Devers except DH. 

And I must repeat this.  Not once in the previous 8 years had the Sox made any attempt to train Devers to be a firstbaseman.  Now, all of sudden, when Casas is having an absolutely crap year, it is of the highest priority to move Devers in there.  To me that's baloney.  

And, oh, by the way, with Devers at DH, the Sox played just as well as they did without their best player, Bregman, as they did with him.  Bregman was not missed--well, not so you tell by the W-L record.  

Where I do agree is that it was time for Devers to leave, both because they were paying him too much to be a DH and because in the end he probably wasn't very happy here.   

In my opinion management was just as screwed up as Devers.  

 

 

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

OK, DH didn't make him better, but it sure helped that as the DH he never missed a game.  

I doubt that Cora promised anything, but I'm sure he told a distraught Devers to embrace the DH position, which he did.  

I think you have made a good case that Devers was/is better suited for 1b than 3b.    But guess what?  No one in Sox management said that for 8 straight seasons.   You remember Dalbec?  That would have been a perfect year to switch Devers, but it never came even close to happening.

So all of  sudden in comes Bregman, a terrific 3d baseman and hitter.  But did anyone suggest 1b to Devers then?  Nosiree.  Casas owned that position even though he only played 63 games last season.  Heck, forget last season.  The Sox loved him this season with his .580 OPS.  He literally owned 1b, and there was no place for Devers except DH. 

And I must repeat this.  Not once in the previous 8 years had the Sox made any attempt to train Devers to be a firstbaseman.  Now, all of sudden, when Casas is having an absolutely crap year, it is of the highest priority to move Devers in there.  To me that's baloney.  

And, oh, by the way, with Devers at DH, the Sox played just as well as they did without their best player, Bregman, as they did with him.  Bregman was not missed--well, not so you tell by the W-L record.  

Where I do agree is that it was time for Devers to leave, both because they were paying him too much to be a DH and because in the end he probably wasn't very happy here.   

In my opinion management was just as screwed up as Devers.  

We can totally agree on that last line, Max.

I've been talking about letting Devers try 1B for over 3 years.

We screwed it with Betts. We chose the wrong time to extend and to dump Sale.

We got lucky the comp pick for Bogey was a good one, but we blew that one, too.

I saw no sign that Devers was ever an attitude issue, until this spring. Brez/Cora blew it, but Devers is supposed to do as asked, especially when it was obviously for the betterment of the team. It's not like we asked him to play CF or moved him off 3B so Toto could play there.

You gotta admit, Cora did everything he could to shield him from more issues by forcing him to play 1B. For what? So, he could pout and dogg it, anyway?

The whole team saw what Devers did to Cora, them and the fans.

Would the team be better off firing Cora, Brez and letting the kids learn from the Devers example, going forward?

Please give an honest answer to this question.

[moonslav59]

This is all so surreal.

BTW, we DFA'd Penrod to make room for the 2 pitchers.

Houck now has the longest seniority on the 40 man Roster (SEP '20) with Wong second!

What a total cluster!

While our future still has promise, just how long can a team ask its fanbase to "wait till next year?" Then, how sure can we be that 2026 will be much different, except for the worse?

For weeks, we've been talking about how we've stockpiled youth and depth to the point of logjams that could lead to trades to improve areas of need with solid vets. Instead, we trade our best vet for more prospects and deeper logjams.

Geeesh!

[moonslav59]

So, even if we assume we spend the Devers money, next winter, who would we get?

This assumes we bring Bregman back.

Alonso for 1B?

Cease, Gallen or Framber to join Crochet in the rotation?

Alonso & Michael King?

Cease and Naylor?

Do we count on Casas or the Toro-Romy combo?

Do we go for 2 starters?

We need a new Chapman, too.

Helsley, Suarez or Diaz?

I seriously doubt we even add King, Naylor and Helsley. (That's way more than Devers money, BTW.)

[moonslav59]

Buster Posey on Harrison...

“Kyle Harrison is a guy that has tremendous upside, I’ve been very outspoken about what I believe the foundation of success is for an organization. It’s pitching and defense. To give up a guy like that is not an easy thing for us.”

[jdc69]

My $0.02 is that this will set the Red Sox back right when the future started to look bright but also cleans things up in many ways. Unfortunately it cleans up things that were quite avoidable to begin with, that being the Devers/Bregman/Yoshida/Casas....1st/3rd/DH conundrum. But it also allows the prospects experiment to be pushed to the forefront, so that is a positive, I guess, if they're ready for it. In the end though, I've got to think that there are a whole lot of people getting rich from being incompetent. 

[TedYazPapiMookie]

This trade is OUTSTANDING!!!  Think about all it accomplished:

1 - Close to $30Million available for the next decade to spend where we need it.  Devers was hot lately but with every hot streak is one of his cold streaks so Boston got his production without his slump in 2025!!!  That's huge along with the money.

2 - The players he got will push out some of the less talented pitchers from the roster and make the roster stronger from a pitching perspective immediately.

3 - The disrespect shown by Devers should have been unforgiveable.  He deserved to be treated like crap for being so arrogant about his value to the team.  Bloom knew he was on the way out and chose to screw over the club for a decade.  Now the jokes on him.  His bad contract has been completely erased before the damage of Devers' declining skills could be felt by the team.

4 - Mookie was a superstar compared to Devers.  He got worse treatment than Devers.  There is no feeling sorry for Devers in this scenario.  He still gets his money, he's simply taking his attitude elsewhere to be someone else's problem.

BRAVO BRESLOW.  HOPEFULLY CORA IS NEXT!!!!  I'm starting to buy into your nickname Bres!!!

Keep the deals coming.  Yoshida needs a home.  Now Abreu can be the DH and the outfield defense can be maximized with Duran in CF, Rafaela in RF and Anthony in the footsteps of Teddy and Yaz in LF.

Refsnyder/Abreu can be the 4th outfielder and DH so no roster spots wasted on the platoon.

Now we need Mayer at SS, Bregman back at 3B, Campbell at 2B and Story traded to a contender for more young stars.   Breslow dumped $30Million a year already and can still reduce payroll by another $40Million between Story and Yoshida. ($23.3M and $18M)  

Can you imagine what Breslow could do with another $100Million (Devers, Story and Yoshida) to beef up the pitching? WOW this was the best day we've had since we picked up Crochet in another awesome trade by Breslow!!!

[jdc69]

4 hours ago, jad said:

Because trading away star players (Ruth, Betts) has always worked out so well.  F*CK this team.  I've followed this guy since he played AA in Portland.   And I've been a fan of the RS since the early 50s.  I hope the SOX  lose every game for the rest of the season.   I'm just glad for Rafy that he  got away from this mess and its duplicitous administrative ways.

I believe he got sent to a good organization. SFG have been my second favorite team since Bochy.

[Hitch]

Well this was a shocker. 

I do not understand why people continue to want to blame just one party for the Devers clusterf***. they all have blame on this one. The Sox should have handled it better at the outset when they kept telling him Bregman was being lined up as a 2nd baseman. They were full of s*** and lied to his face. Devers should understand that a paycheck like that (and even if it wasn't like that) - the team comes first and you need to do whatever you can for your teammates to win. Cora could have handled it all better.  It is what it is, hopefully we'l learn from it, though evidence suggests not. 

Devers attitude has flat out sucked at points this year, yet he's played injured and without complaint plenty over the years. Just a shame it's come to this. 

My biggest problem with it (leaving out evaluating the return for now) is the timing. Why now? We've just supercharged our season, and we have the Giants in a series in a few games time! Absolutely wild. 

 

This will mean a revolving door at DH which is no bad thing. How the team responds to this will show us a lot. 

The Yankees will be the happiest people out of anyone. 

I do wonder if this is the first of two huge moves and a Skeenes-type pitcher is who we target next. 

[Hitch]

5 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

 

Now we need Mayer at SS, Bregman back at 3B, Campbell at 2B and Story traded to a contender for more young stars.   Breslow dumped $30Million a year already and can still reduce payroll by another $40Million between Story and Yoshida. ($23.3M and $18M)  

We couldn't give Yoshida and Story's contracts away, never mind get back young stars for them. 

[jad]

8 hours ago, FredLynn said:

I really don't give a rats ass if Devers was "unhappy". Too bad! Things change and people need to be flexible. I know there would have been a learning curve for Devers at 1B and I would not have expected that he would immediately be good there defensively. But others have made the switch. He is a stubborn insubordinate me first player and that is not the culture management wanted here. I don't blame them one bit. We likely won't be contending for a ring or even playing ball in Oct this year, but Devers is replaceable.

INSUBORDINATION!   You got that right. Whether by an employee, a student,  a lower ranking colleague, or worst of all, a child.  It's just not acceptable in any walk of life, and needs to be corrected immediately.  Like my imaginry kids for example:  I just beat the crap out of them until they learn to keep their elbows off the table. 

[Bellhorn04]

I can see taking Devers's side on the position switch stuff.  But how you do take the side of a guy making 31 million a year who won't run hard to first base. 

[jgar658]

When Nomar was traded in 2004 the Red Sox won the World Series.  You never know

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

What happened to the posters who told me there was no way devers would ever be traded?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

First reaction (in my board brain) upon hearing the news: NOW who's going to bat second???????

Do the Red Sox even have a best hitter left?

Obviously, this is Bregman's team now, so maybe it's him when he returns... I always thought he'd be the perfect #2, a star who bats righty (which immediately breaks up the Sox top-heavy lefty line-up).

Hopefully, Anthony relaxes a bit more and his high On Base habits begin to translate, now that we know who Cora was actually referring to when he said there was a painful decision coming... Roman may not replicate his .400 OBP in the minors, but if he can approach .350 in the majors, with pop, he could bat in the top third of the order.

The more immediate question is where is Boston going to find the next consistent 30 home run man that every true contender needs?

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

17 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The more immediate question is where is Boston going to find the next consistent 30 home run man that every true contender needs?

I read earlier today that the giants haven't had a 30HR guy since bonds and I'm pretty sure they won a few rings during that time.

[notin]

11 hours ago, jad said:

Yeah, just like the bosses in other industries, right?  How dare employees suggest they have any rights?

Devers’ situation should definitely be compared to 13yo black lung patients coming off their quadruple shifts….

[notin]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I can see taking Devers's side on the position switch stuff.  But how you do take the side of a guy making 31 million a year who won't run hard to first base. 

I can understand getting upset about being told his defense was a problem (which it was).  But I can’t get the highest paid player when asked about filling in for an injured teammate publicly saying “I can’t play every position” and “it’s [Breslow’s] job to go get a first baseman.”  
 

Im hearing stories Devers asked to be traded…

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

I can understand getting upset about being told his defense was a problem (which it was).  But I can’t get the highest paid player when asked about filling in for an injured teammate publicly saying “I can’t play every position” and “it’s [Breslow’s] job to go get a first baseman.”  
 

Im hearing stories Devers asked to be traded…

Why Red Sox traded Rafael Devers: Star slugger made spring trade request as relationship with team fractured

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

This is a tired old narrative, and I never fell for it. DH did not make Devers a better hitter. He was better, last year, before the injury and had a better year way back when as a 3Bman.

To me, Cora made a mistake, if he told Devers he was going to DH only. With Casas being a china doll, he should have had some foresight.

So freakin what! Bloom promised Devers 3B for longer than it lasted. Things change in baseball, and no player is above it. I dont care if Cora promised Devers $100M, if he ever played anything but DH. That does not matter. 

We needed him to play 1B, and the fact that Toro & Romy ended up doing fine does not change what Devers did, and how Devers backed Cora into a corner then dogged it more than once, which was total disrespect to Cora, the team and the fans.

I'm all for giving people a second chance, but to me, Devers used up his second and 3rd chances in just a few short months.

Bye bye.

 

What happened to "devers forevers"??

[Hitch]

9 minutes ago, notin said:

I can understand getting upset about being told his defense was a problem (which it was).  But I can’t get the highest paid player when asked about filling in for an injured teammate publicly saying “I can’t play every position” and “it’s [Breslow’s] job to go get a first baseman.”  
 

Im hearing stories Devers asked to be traded…

Cotillo and McAdams both said at the time of the 1B blowup, that they heard rumblings that some players were unhappy that he wouldn't help the team, and others that thought he was in the right to dig in. I'd love to know the split on that. 

One thing is for sure, you can't go sounding off at your bosses. Be annoyed, argue it out in private, but doing what he did was not good. 

 

[Hitch]

MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo followed up and said he didn’t request a trade out of Boston.

"A source with knowledge of the Red Sox-Rafael Devers relationship described it tonight as 'an unsalvageable situation for both parties.' Devers was frustrated with mixed messaging from 'different voices' in the organization," Cotillo said. "Felt like a scapegoat. The root was what the player felt was disorganized communication from the jump this year.

"As we reported, it never got to the point where he *demanded* a trade. That doesn’t mean he didn’t welcome one. Conversations took place over months."

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 minute ago, Hitch said:

MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo followed up and said he didn’t request a trade out of Boston.

"A source with knowledge of the Red Sox-Rafael Devers relationship described it tonight as 'an unsalvageable situation for both parties.' Devers was frustrated with mixed messaging from 'different voices' in the organization," Cotillo said. "Felt like a scapegoat. The root was what the player felt was disorganized communication from the jump this year.

"As we reported, it never got to the point where he *demanded* a trade. That doesn’t mean he didn’t welcome one. Conversations took place over months."

There's definitely conflicting reports out there.

[Hitch]

I think the biggest harm of this could come from a continuation of what we've seen of people being wary of signing with the Sox. From FO leaders to players. 

When you signal too often that you're willing to send on the very best players you have, you stop being an attractive option to people wanting to win.