Article: Mookie Betts 2.0: Rafael Devers Trade Continues Harrowing Red Sox Tradition

[notin]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

What are you talking about? I get that you are really pissed at Raffy, but at least be normal for a second. 

I edited it to explain.  In didnt count on you responding so fast.  I wondered how Sam is 10% at fault here…

[Maxbialystock]

On 6/16/2025 at 6:50 AM, Brandon Glick said:

Mookie Betts. Xander Bogaerts. Rafael Devers.

The last three faces of the historic Boston Red Sox franchise, all World Series champions, are now playing out the remainder of their primes for the big dogs in the NL West. It's hard to talk about this with any semblance of emotional and analytical clarity, because the value that trio of superstars brought to Boston extended so far beyond the walls of Fenway.

The Betts deal, which has been panned ad nauseam for the last half-decade, at least made an iota of sense if you squinted hard enough. An MVP winner in the final year of his deal, the Red Sox's competitive window with their current core had expired (supposedly), and thus, instead of paying him a record amount, the team flipped him for a bundle of prospects and MLB-ready pieces with upside. Even at the time, the return was thought to be weak — and it certainly hasn't aged well — but from a team-building perspective, the logic was understandable, even if the execution was so deeply flawed.

This... this is harder to explain. Devers' contract doesn't expire until after the 2033 season, when the third baseman/designated hitter will be 36. He was the last remaining core pillar of that 2018 team, an in-his-prime slugger with superstar bonafides. In case 162-game averages of 33 home runs, 107 RBIs, and a 128 OPS+ aren't enough to make you swoon, he has a career .955 OPS in 26 postseason games, all played before he turned 25 years old.

The San Francisco Giants, who have famously struggled for years to attract legitimate stars to their team, have now had one fall directly in their laps for a laughable acquisition cost. They benefit tremendously from a bizarre situation, one which only is made weirder by the fact that the Red Sox swept the rival New York Yankees mere hours before officially completing the deal. Against the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, the team has gone 7-2 over their last nine, a stretch that has them back over .500 and in spitting distance of a Wild Card spot.

This deal raises so, so many questions, both now and in the future. What does this mean for Alex Bregman's future, now that the team has opened up third base and plenty of salary over the long haul? How did the Red Sox get such a light haul for one of the sport's most recognizable players? What will the locker room reaction be to losing the team's premier star? Is the front office safe if the team falters in the second half?

However, no question is more important than this: what will Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, and every future star free agent think of the team's willingness to put its own ego over loyalty to its biggest stars? Even if Devers really did want out of Boston — which is rooted in the fractured relationship the front office has with him over the very public posturing during his position change to DH — this doesn't look good, no matter how the PR team will try to spin it. This is the Luka Dončić trade of baseball, and Craig Breslow is Nico Harrison. 

The 2025 season is now no longer the team's top priority, despite their recent flirtation with winning. The future is here, if only because the front office and ownership are forcing everyone to look forward. Grief — especially grief born of losing someone you've come to cherish — is never easy to handle, even in a large, communal setting.

At least Red Sox fans can say they already know the feeling.

 

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Whattalotta.  The Red Sox tradition in the John Henry era is winning 4 freaking WS's.  That's more than any other MLB team in the same period.  Plus of course JH ended the 86 year curse.  So put that in your pipe and smoke it.  

Of course there have been bad trades.  Everyone has them.  The Yankees stole Ellsbury from us and paid over $200M for very little performance.  The Sox also acquired some stinkers.  

To me there were/are understandable reasons for letting Mookie, Raffy, and others go.  A major factor from 2019 to the present is that JH, no doubt appalled that his highest payroll in MLB 2019 Sox didn't make the postseason and that he would need to spend a lot more money to get back to that level.  So he hired Chaim Bloom with instructions to look for bargains, not great talent.  

Breslow has made mistakes, but I don't think letting Devers go was one of them. I do agree with those who say Breslow created this mess with Devers, but also think letting him go with all of his humungous salary was a good move.  

[Hugh2]

14 minutes ago, notin said:

Ive said that multiple times.  If so, f*** him! What a selfish a-hole…

If he's not willingly moving over to 1B in SF then the same EXACT thing is going to happen to him there. There DH spot is clogged up, Flores certainly does not have 1B locked down and the DH is going to get more clogged when Chapman comes back.

I like Devers, I really do, but I'm going to chuckle if they want him at 1B and he doesn't like that. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

18 minutes ago, notin said:

I edited it to explain.  In didnt count on you responding so fast.  I wondered how Sam is 10% at fault here…

Because he opened his mouth. Just a week ago Sam said Raffy will be ready to play 1B when needed. He must have been cut off before he finished, "... for San Francisco."

Beetle on Sportstalk TV just summed it up: "Every time the front office talks in public, it never makes fans feel better."

[Bellhorn04]

46 minutes ago, notin said:

So his job is to put the wants of his whiny diva player ahead of the needs of a team that just lost a starter for the season?

Like I said his job is to get the best results.

Toro and Gonzalez have been doing fine.

We have zero idea if the disciplinarian approach would have worked.  I tend to doubt it, myself, given Devers's behavior.  

The fact they traded Devers tends to confirm that ownership and management thought the relationship was just broken.  

 

[mvp 78]

47 minutes ago, notin said:

I edited it to explain.  In didnt count on you responding so fast.  I wondered how Sam is 10% at fault here…

What do you mean that I "bulked up" Raffy's number? 

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

If he's not willingly moving over to 1B in SF then the same EXACT thing is going to happen to him there. There DH spot is clogged up, Flores certainly does not have 1B locked down and the DH is going to get more clogged when Chapman comes back.

I like Devers, I really do, but I'm going to chuckle if they want him at 1B and he doesn't like that. 

Wilmer Flores has a 733 OPS (63 GS at DH). Devers is a little bit better than that! 

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Because he opened his mouth. Just a week ago Sam said Raffy will be ready to play 1B when needed. He must have been cut off before he finished, "... for San Francisco."

Beetle on Sportstalk TV just summed it up: "Every time the front office talks in public, it never makes fans feel better."

Sam explained last night in the press conference that he was mistaken about that and should not have said that. He admitted he had no idea what he was talking about and just said it because he saw Raffy taking infield on NESN monitors and didn't talk to anyone about it. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Sam explained last night in the press conference that he was mistaken about that and should not have said that. He admitted he had no idea what he was talking about and just said it because he saw Raffy taking infield on NESN monitors and didn't talk to anyone about it. 

The President admitted he made a mistake? Beautiful.

[mvp 78]

Just now, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The President admitted he made a mistake? Beautiful.

It was very weird. There were lots of weird moments from that press conference, but that one was up there. 

[Hugh2]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Wilmer Flores has a 733 OPS (63 GS at DH). Devers is a little bit better than that! 

riight, but he's been their primary first baseman since Chapman went on the IL.  When Chapman comes back Fores is getting a lot less playing time.  And it ain't like Dominic Smith has 1B locked down either

[Hugh2]

I think Devers starts out at DH in SF, but they're going to want him to play 1B at some point.  They have a lot of DH types on their roster right now but no one locking down 1B. 

 

or not. who knows 

[TedYazPapiMookie]

4 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

How do you think we get those guys off our books? You're either eating all the money, or sending a guy with the level of value of Duran.  Which is not realistic.  You probably split the difference and send them a prospect package like Franklin Aria, Jhostynxnon Garcia +15-30 million. 

That's assuming you can find a team that is still willing to take on a lot of money, and is willing to do so, and likes that prospect package.  Same can be said of Yoshida.  This 

I'm not sure how selling off our young assets to clear money out helps us after getting rid of Devers.  It kind of just clears us out and sets us up to make a run in 3-4 years from now instead of in the present.  It also seems pretty irresponsible to get rid of a lot of top prospects to clear out money when we can reset the luxury tax next year, and all those guys would be off the books by the time that 2-3 year reset window comes back around. 

Yoshida isn't worthless.  He has value.  It's not $18 Million a year but his OPS+ was 112 so he's above league average.  He only has 2 years left after 2025 and 2025 is half over.  With all the current players that look to be starting during their controllable years - Duran, Rafaela, Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Casas and Narvaez, every player in the farm system that plays the same positions are expendable and available to be coupled with Yoshida to be moved.  This is a salary dump that benefits the other team who has payroll room and is rebuilding.  Yoshida is a weak defender, but he could make for a good fourth outfielder if the farm system player has some upside potential and is blocked by a current farm system player.

Selling off farm system redundancies rather than doing a buy down allows Breslow the flexibility to use whatever money he needs to fill any remaining gaps in the roster.   Buy downs simply reduce the amount of money available under the cap.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

I think Devers starts out at DH in SF, but they're going to want him to play 1B at some point.  They have a lot of DH types on their roster right now but no one locking down 1B. 

 

or not. who knows 

If Flores and Devers are both in the lineup, they are putting Flores at 1b (career 6 DRS).  Even Dom Smith is a career 1 DRS. I don't think the Giants could count on Devers being an average 1b if he's never played there before. 

[moonslav59]

I would not separate Kennedy and JH on any blame pie chart. I'd just call it the FO, seperate from Brez. 

40% Devers

30% Brez (Maybe less, see Cora's share.)

20% FO (just because they always have a share in anything bad.)

5% Cora (more, if Brez told him to get Devers to play 1B, and he refused to even try)

5% Bloom

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

What do you mean that I "bulked up" Raffy's number? 

I meant you bulked up the number of pieces eaters.  I considered Sam less culpable than you did…

[Hugh2]

15 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If Flores and Devers are both in the lineup, they are putting Flores at 1b (career 6 DRS).  Even Dom Smith is a career 1 DRS. I don't think the Giants could count on Devers being an average 1b if he's never played there before. 

The key guy you’re forgetting is Bryce Eldridge.  Top 25 prospect in all of baseball.  20 years old already in AAA. 
 

kid can do everything but field.  Sure, maybe the plug him in at 1b and see what he can do. But apparently it hasn’t been pretty so far

 

but Raffys situation on SF isn’t all too different than it was in Boston

ADD: to be fair I forgot about Eldridge too

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

I meant you bulked up the number of pieces eaters.  I considered Sam less culpable than you did…

I consider Sam more culpable than JH because he's around the team on a daily basis. He stuck his nose into the drama when he didn't need to. For a guy that is just a go between for JH, stay out of the way.  

JH is just a checkbook and has the final say on decisions. He's the guy who had to fly to KC after the s*** hit the fan (not like it would do anything). JH realized it wasn't going to get better and authorized a trade. JH mandated that Breslow get rid of the salary in any trade (not what was said, but what was reported). 

Breslow is at fault for not communicating from the beginning. He needed to be the bigger man all along. He put zero effort into fixing the relationship and has learned nothing from this. 

Cora told half truths to Raffy to manage the situation and doesn't get along with Breslow. 

Raffy needed to suck it up a little bit better than he did, but he let his emotions get to him. 

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

The key guy you’re forgetting is Bryce Eldridge.  Top 25 prospect in all of baseball.  20 years old already in AAA. 
 

kid can do everything but field.  Sure, maybe the plug him in at 1b and see what he can do. But apparently it hasn’t been pretty so far

 

but Raffys situation on SF isn’t all too different than it was in Boston

Have you seen Eldridge's fielding percentage numbers? 🤮 

24 errors in 135 G. That's worse than Raffy at 3b. 

[Hugh2]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

Have you seen Eldridge's fielding percentage numbers? 🤮 

24 errors in 135 G. That's worse than Raffy at 3b. 

Exactly, so you’d think the team sees him as a DH in San Francisco 

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Exactly, so you’d think the team sees him as a DH in San Francisco 

They may see Eldridge as trade fodder at the deadline now that they have a DH for the next decade. 

[Hugh2]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

They may see Eldridge as trade fodder at the deadline now that they have a DH for the next decade. 

Maybe, maybe not.  Maybe they think Raffy will move to 1b.

[Hugh2]

32 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They may see Eldridge as trade fodder at the deadline now that they have a DH for the next decade. 

ADD.  I think it would happen in the offseason, I can see Raffy sliding in at DH to finish off the year and the team asks him to slide to first in the offseason. 

Perhaps they expect on a new team, with a fresh start, and an honest dialogue up front that he doesn't have his feelings hurt about making the move. 

[Maxbialystock]

2 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Because he opened his mouth. Just a week ago Sam said Raffy will be ready to play 1B when needed. He must have been cut off before he finished, "... for San Francisco."

Beetle on Sportstalk TV just summed it up: "Every time the front office talks in public, it never makes fans feel better."

The front office is just that, a front.  Lying comes naturally to them.  

I don't mind Raffy being traded.  As a DH, no matter how good, he is overpriced.  Plus the Sox hitting is not the problem with the 2025 Sox.  Pitching is.  That's why the Sox are 2 games above .500 for the first time this season.  Raffy didn't get us there, the pitching did.  In fact, since Bregman went on the IL, Raffy's OPS has dropped by 80 points.  His bat was not needed to win 6 straight games.  

I liked Raffy as DH and think Breslow lied to him and screwed him over.  But I also like this trade and how this team looks/plays right now.  Losing his salary could help Breslow get another starter like Crochet.  

The commentators keep making a big deal that Devers is the last 2018 Red Soxer to leave the team, but none of them mentions that his WAR that year was 0.0.  The top WAR's belonged to Mookie, JDM, Benintendi, Bogaerts, and JBJ.  JDM and JBJ are out of MLB.  Beni is with the White Sox.  Bogey is overpriced and with San Diego, and Mookie is a bonafide star and sure HOF player with the Dodgers, one of the best teams in MLB. 

[Maxbialystock]

1 minute ago, Hugh2 said:

ADD.  I think it would happen in the offseason, I can see Raffy sliding in at DH to finish off the year and the team asks him to slide to first in the offseason. 

Perhaps they expect on a new team, with a fresh start, and an honest dialogue up front that he doesn't have his feelings hurt about making the move. 

That sounds pro-Devers and I have absolutely no problem with it.  I'm fine with the trade, but am positive Breslow lied to Devers and generally screwed him over.  The Giants should do the opposite.  

[mvp 78]

 

[Maxbialystock]

48 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I consider Sam more culpable than JH because he's around the team on a daily basis. He stuck his nose into the drama when he didn't need to. For a guy that is just a go between for JH, stay out of the way.  

JH is just a checkbook and has the final say on decisions. He's the guy who had to fly to KC after the s*** hit the fan (not like it would do anything). JH realized it wasn't going to get better and authorized a trade. JH mandated that Breslow get rid of the salary in any trade (not what was said, but what was reported). 

Breslow is at fault for not communicating from the beginning. He needed to be the bigger man all along. He put zero effort into fixing the relationship and has learned nothing from this. 

Cora told half truths to Raffy to manage the situation and doesn't get along with Breslow. 

Raffy needed to suck it up a little bit better than he did, but he let his emotions get to him. 

I don't think Cora is in any way a guilty party.  Bregman was a terrific acquisition, but Breslow lied and told Raffy he would stay at 3b.  When that didn't happen, it fell to Cora to persuade Raffy to embrace DH, which he did with great success.  Then Casas got hurt and Breslow acted as though the season was over if Raffy didn't immediately step in at 1b, win a gold glove, and keep that OPS comfortably above .900.  Anybody could have replaced Casas, who was having a rotten season.  Devers did not need to be moved and shouldn't have been because by then he'd been lied to twice.  

You provide an excellent laydown, however.  

[Hitch]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Blame Pie:

Breslow 35%

Sam 10%

JH 10%

Cora 25%

Raffy 20%

 

For me -

 

Breslow - 40%

Devers - 40%

Cora - 20%

They f***ed up the communication and lied to him. Then Devers threw his toys out of the prams and s*** on his teammates. 

[mvp 78]

12 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

I don't think Cora is in any way a guilty party. 

I think we all look at it under slightly different lenses. I don't think any of us are necessarily wrong. 

[Bellhorn04]

11 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

I don't think Cora is in any way a guilty party.  Bregman was a terrific acquisition, but Breslow lied and told Raffy he would stay at 3b.  When that didn't happen, it fell to Cora to persuade Raffy to embrace DH, which he did with great success.  Then Casas got hurt and Breslow acted as though the season was over if Raffy didn't immediately step in at 1b, win a gold glove, and keep that OPS comfortably above .900.  Anybody could have replaced Casas, who was having a rotten season.  Devers did not need to be moved and shouldn't have been because by then he'd been lied to twice.  

You provide an excellent laydown, however.  

Max, anybody could have replaced the Casas who started the season in a horrible slump, but that's not really the point.  First of all the hope was that Casas would get it going again, the way players often do.  Second, most teams have good hitters at first base so if you don't, that's a disadvantage.  The good news is that Breslow seems to have a very nice pick out of the trash heap with Toro.