Henry, Devers, and Florian Wirtz

[Hitch]

My feeling is the Giants will be very happy with it for the next few years, after that, probably less so.

Whether the Sox are happy with it long term (production wise) we'll have to wait a while.

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

How is that the Giants fault? 

Nothing to do with "fault."

[Kimmi]

2 hours ago, Hitch said:

My feeling is the Giants will be very happy with it for the next few years, after that, probably less so.

Whether the Sox are happy with it long term (production wise) we'll have to wait a while.

Devers is likely going through a period of getting acclimated to his new role, just as he did at the beginning of the season when he was adjusting to being a full-time DH.  He will likely soon return to being a very good hitter for the next few years.  That said, I feel relieved not to have to carry that contract during the latter years.  

[dgalehouse]

Devers should not be playing third base or first base. The Sox probably should have realized that a while ago. He really is the stereotypical DH.  A poor defender. Maybe slightly out of shape. Certainly not the most energetic guy on the field. But he definitely can hit and hit with power. He may be overpaid for a DH, but there is nothing that can be done about that now. I think he will have success with the Giants. I also think the Sox will be fine without him. 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

9 minutes ago, dgalehouse said:

 I also think the Sox will be fine without him. 

What is your definition of "fine"?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

50 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

What is your definition of "fine"?

Larry's last name.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Kimmi said:

Devers is likely going through a period of getting acclimated to his new role, just as he did at the beginning of the season when he was adjusting to being a full-time DH.  He will likely soon return to being a very good hitter for the next few years.  That said, I feel relieved not to have to carry that contract during the latter years.  

I read somewhere that if you looked at every mega large and long deal in the history of MLB, the vast majority would look like a plus, if the player was traded after 1.5 years.

I'm not happy about losing Devers, but this part may work well for us.

While the Betts trade was separate from the extension, he is one that would have worked out well.

[Bellhorn04]

16 hours ago, Kimmi said:

Devers is likely going through a period of getting acclimated to his new role, just as he did at the beginning of the season when he was adjusting to being a full-time DH.  He will likely soon return to being a very good hitter for the next few years.  That said, I feel relieved not to have to carry that contract during the latter years.  

23 Ks in his first 14 games with the Giants is really concerning - for Giants fans.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

59 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

23 Ks in his first 14 games with the Giants is really concerning - for Giants fans.

Very similar to his start to the season.

[Bellhorn04]

13 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Very similar to his start to the season.

Yes, but at the start of the season he was dealing with rust after his 2024 season was cut short, and he missed a lot of 2025 spring training.

[Nick]

The bottom line? I rather watch Anthony hit from DH spot than Devers.

Our future guys are now sprinkled all over the major league roster. 

You can't expect not to have some downturn when you have 4 rookies taking up bats, (Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez and Campbell) along with 2nd year players in Rafaela and Abreu.

It's just unrealistic. Add on top of that Story and Duran are having subpar years.

Only way we'd be competing is with good starting rotation. Yet, Bello, Buehler and Giolito are all trying to figure things out. And that doesn't involve Houck and his dark times. Not to mention now Kutter is out for the year. I didn't even know that he was hurt going into spring training. That's how bad it's been. We see a glimmer of hope with Dobbins and Fitts.

And if Jordan Hicks becomes our closer and Kyle Harrison emerges as a starter, than the trade looks better and better in Sox direction. What, we gained $280M that can be REPURPOSED.

I am glad Devers is gone. Now do something with all the 'flexibility' supposedly his departure is going to provide us. I'll be waiting.

[Bellhorn04]

8 minutes ago, Nick said:

The bottom line? I rather watch Anthony hit from DH spot than Devers.

Our future guys are now sprinkled all over the major league roster. 

You can't expect not to have some downturn when you have 4 rookies taking up bats, (Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez and Campbell) along with 2nd year players in Rafaela and Abreu.

It's just unrealistic. Add on top of that Story and Duran are having subpar years.

Only way we'd be competing is with good starting rotation. Yet, Bello, Buehler and Giolito are all trying to figure things out. And that doesn't involve Houck and his dark times. Not to mention now Kutter is out for the year. I didn't even know that he was hurt going into spring training. That's how bad it's been. We see a glimmer of hope with Dobbins and Fitts.

And if Jordan Hicks becomes our closer and Kyle Harrison emerges as a starter, than the trade looks better and better in Sox direction. What, we gained $280M that can be REPURPOSED.

I am glad Devers is gone. Now do something with all the 'flexibility' supposedly his departure is going to provide us. I'll be waiting.

I'm glad he's gone too.  There was a cloud hanging over him from the get-go this year.

And it's definitely exciting to see Anthony and Mayer starting to pick up some hits.

[moonslav59]

43 minutes ago, Nick said:

46 minutes ago, Nick said:

And if Jordan Hicks becomes our closer and Kyle Harrison emerges as a starter, than the trade looks better and better in Sox direction. What, we gained $280M that can be REPURPOSED.

 

I'm not ready to anoint Hicks the closer, just yet, but he could be a very nice set-up man, going forward.

Let's see how the tweaks we made with harrison work out, before we make him the #2 SP'er we need.

These two, with the prospects as longshots should be viewed as ancillary pieces or depth. We cannot shy away from adding a #2 SP'er (Cease?) and a closer (Helsely, Suarez, Diaz or Chapman?), this winter, because of them.

 

[moonslav59]

41 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I'm glad he's gone too.  There was a cloud hanging over him from the get-go this year.

And it's definitely exciting to see Anthony and Mayer starting to pick up some hits.

I would not say "glad," since the whole fiasco stunk to high heavens from day one of the Bregman signing, and it should not have had to get this far. 

Once again, we are relying on the key words, "repurposing his money," and we can't kid ourselves that we will both do it and do it well. We might, but we can't count on it. Plus, we have more than just his money to repurpose, and do it well to have a legit shot in '26. We have to bring Bregman back AND spend Devers, Chapman, Giolito and Buehler's money wisely.

Yes, the cloud is gone, but so are 35 bombs and 100+ RBI's and a batter that had the Yank's number.

Maybe the kids take up the slack, but we didn't trade Devers for the kids: we coulda had Devers AND the kids. (Plus, we wasn't an old man, yet. Some called him a child.)

[Bellhorn04]

33 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I would not say "glad," since the whole fiasco stunk to high heavens from day one of the Bregman signing, and it should not have had to get this far. 

Once again, we are relying on the key words, "repurposing his money," and we can't kid ourselves that we will both do it and do it well. We might, but we can't count on it. Plus, we have more than just his money to repurpose, and do it well to have a legit shot in '26. We have to bring Bregman back AND spend Devers, Chapman, Giolito and Buehler's money wisely.

Yes, the cloud is gone, but so are 35 bombs and 100+ RBI's and a batter that had the Yank's number.

Maybe the kids take up the slack, but we didn't trade Devers for the kids: we coulda had Devers AND the kids. (Plus, we wasn't an old man, yet. Some called him a child.)

Yes, we all have our personal responses.  Devers really turned me against him this spring and made me worry about the future of his contract.  I honestly feel relieved about it.  Obviously it's up to the team to reinvest the money, but I don't see much point worrying about that.  They forked out for Crochet and Bregman, they signed 3 extensions with the kids, they paid Cora.  They're clearly doing better in that department. 

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yes, we all have our personal responses.  Devers really turned me against him this spring and made me worry about the future of his contract.  I honestly feel relieved about it.  Obviously it's up to the team to reinvest the money, but I don't see much point worrying about that.  They forked out for Crochet and Bregman, they signed 3 extensions with the kids, they paid Cora.  They're clearly doing better in that department. 

Agreed, but with JH, you never know from year to year. I'd love to hear we extended Bregman, Mayer, Narvaez and Anthony, next, but I share Kimmi's worries on 5 years for Bregman. I think what Alex brings to the dugout and clubhouse makes it worth the extra year or two.

A longer term deal with Bregman would actually lower the AAV and tax budget hit for 2026 vs 2025. Losing the Devers, Buehler, Gio, Chapman and Hendriks contracts opens up a wide window for "repurposing" spending. On the surface, it looks like replacing a top closer for $12M is impossible, replacing a DH for $31M, a s***** SP'er for $21M and a do nothing RP'er (Hendriks) for $5M should be a cakewalk. Replacing Gio & Wilson will not be easy, but Gio makes big money.

I think it can be done, but there is very little room for error, unless JH opens up the wallet beyond just the "repurposed" money.

[notin]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yes, but at the start of the season he was dealing with rust after his 2024 season was cut short, and he missed a lot of 2025 spring training.

And now he’s getting used to facing a bunch of new hard-throwing arms he’s only faced a very limited number of times, if any,  before…

[Nick]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

I'm glad he's gone too.  There was a cloud hanging over him from the get-go this year.

And it's definitely exciting to see Anthony and Mayer starting to pick up some hits.

I think this is where the Sox wanted to be in first place, having Campbell, Mayer and Anthony on big league roster. Narvaez was a gift we didn't expect. Unfortunately Campbell has not worked out after his outstanding April.

Then Abreu has been very solid when healthy and Rafaela is emerging as a pretty good second year center fielder. There's no DH so Cora can be flexible with his lineup.

We just need our pitchers to right themselves as a group. 

[Bellhorn04]

17 minutes ago, notin said:

And now he’s getting used to facing a bunch of new hard-throwing arms Hes only faced a very limited number of times before…

That seems like a dubious reason.  With the balanced schedule these guys are all seeing different arms all the time.

 

[moonslav59]

41 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

That seems like a dubious reason.  With the balanced schedule these guys are all seeing different arms all the time.

 

Devers has a pretty long history of having some 2-4 week slumps- some connected to injury- some not any known injury.

I have to think he will get red hot, again, a few times, before his time in SF is up.

I doubt he goes the Bogey route.

[vjcsmoke]

I don't think that the Liverpool transactions have anything to do with the Red Sox. Liverpool has been spending very frugally over the past few transfer windows and they saw a chance to obtain a generational player in Wirtz and jumped on it using the savings they had been stockpiling, aka their transfer war chest. They are now building themselves up into a potential dynasty which is a bold and laudable move to strengthen from a position of strength as current Premier league champs.

As for the Red Sox, it truly sucks the way FSG have run the club recently. Selling off Betts, selling off the majority of the 2018 championship core, and now salary dumping Devers for a poor looking return. We aren't even getting back a Verdugo quality player to plug into a starting position.

It's just shameful. Henry, Breslow, and the entire Red Sox front office should be ashamed. The Devers trade potentially drops us out of playoff contention for the 4th year straight. I don't know how this gets fixed but ownership has made themselves into the problem instead of part of the solution.

[vjcsmoke]

9 hours ago, Nick said:

And if Jordan Hicks becomes our closer and Kyle Harrison emerges as a starter, than the trade looks better and better in Sox direction. What, we gained $280M that can be REPURPOSED.

I am glad Devers is gone. Now do something with all the 'flexibility' supposedly his departure is going to provide us. I'll be waiting.

I can't project Hicks into our closer. He's been a very inconsistent albeit hard throwing pitcher who has never figured out how to locate his fastball consistently.

The big difference between Hicks and Chapman is that Chapman has proven himself a very good reliever in the past even before getting the closer role. His career ERA+ is 162, career FIP 2.39, and career WHIP of 1.092 with a 14.7 K/9. Those numbers are just consistently really good.

Jordan Hicks career numbers are significantly worse. 95 ERA+, 3.84 FIP, 1.322 WHIP, and only 8.8 K/9. A 102 mph fastball doesn't mean a lot unless you pair it with consistency and the craft to punch out batters once you have them on the ropes. His BB/9 at 5.1 also indicates he has control issues and could also put a dangerous runner on base instead of getting that vital out.

At 28 does Hicks have some room for improvement? Yes, but it's not like he's a spring chicken who is just learning the ropes and has lots of room to improve. His ceiling is just about reached and he still hasn't full 'figured out' how to dominate batters at the MLB level.

Hicks to me is not a closer, I just hope he can become a plus bullpen guy. He just doesn't impress me much.

Now Harrison, I hope he can capture the mojo that made him the top pitching prospect in the Giants system but he did not impress much in his MLB callups. Only 88 ERA+, 4.56 FIP, and 1.297 WHIP. I know it's a small sample size but we can't pretend the Red Sox aren't taking on some risk for taking on this unproven starting pitcher who hasn't had a breakout season yet. At least Crochett had one season of looking really excellent for the White Sox before we made the trade for him. 

I can't say I'm glad that Devers is gone. He was a proven, elite batter and the return for him does not look impressive. Nor do I have confidence the Red Sox will replace his salary with good quality players. Their track record with free agents has been very spotty at best over recent years.

[Hitch]

Not exactly on topic, but Liverpool lost one of their forwards (and probably best finisher) this morning in a car crash (along with his brother). 28 years old and married a week ago. 😔

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

2 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Not exactly on topic, but Liverpool lost one of their forwards (and probably best finisher) this morning in a car crash (along with his brother). 28 years old and married a week ago. 😔

Maybe that frees up payroll?

https://nypost.com/2025/07/03/sports/liverpool-star-diogo-jota-28-dies-in-car-crash-in-spain-days-after-his-wedding/

[Hitch]

2 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Maybe that frees up payroll?

https://nypost.com/2025/07/03/sports/liverpool-star-diogo-jota-28-dies-in-car-crash-in-spain-days-after-his-wedding/

What a classless comment. 👍

[Kimmi]

On 7/1/2025 at 6:26 PM, moonslav59 said:

I read somewhere that if you looked at every mega large and long deal in the history of MLB, the vast majority would look like a plus, if the player was traded after 1.5 years.

I'm not happy about losing Devers, but this part may work well for us.

While the Betts trade was separate from the extension, he is one that would have worked out well.

History has shown us time and time again that those long-term deals usually don't work out well.  And most of that data is from when 'long-term deals' were 6-8 years long.  The deals typically look good for the first few years, but once players are in their 30s, they are declining.  

With that said, more and more long-term deals are being given to players before they reach free agency, meaning (obviously) they are typically younger when they sign the deals.  So, the 8-year deal might not be so bad.  I still cringe at anything longer.

[Kimmi]

On 7/2/2025 at 8:42 AM, Bellhorn04 said:

23 Ks in his first 14 games with the Giants is really concerning - for Giants fans.

The Giants are 5-10 in the 15 games since Devers joined them, scoring 3.3 runs per game.  The Giants certainly didn't get that offensive spark that is so often talked about when adding a new player to the team.

Pure speculation, but I'm wondering if Giants players had any reservations about getting Devers, knowing that he put himself ahead of the team while with the Red Sox.  It's certainly not the type of attitude that a clubhouse would readily welcome.