Life After Rafael Devers - Where Do 2025 Red Sox Go From Here?

In a most unexpected turn of events, the Red Sox have again heaved the face of their franchise to an NL West contender in what can only be described as the pettiest salary dump ever seen. Rafael Devers becomes the latest homegrown perennial All-Star to be traded for next to nothing in big league talent, in a deal that may ultimately make the Mookie Betts debacle look palatable. 

The San Francisco Giants are taking on the entirety of the eight remaining years on Devers contract, which I’m assuming was supposed to make up for the fact that the only major league return is a struggling pitcher who has yet to prove worthy of his own four-year, $44 million contract. The sad but ultimately realistic outlook for this Red Sox team is bleak. Devers was the premier player on this team, the one at-bat that you wouldn’t skip in a close game. With Alex Bregman on the shelf for weeks, this was that bat that we needed to carry us. 

What a way to kill the mood after sweeping your archrival. Thats going to be a very long flight to Seattle. The real question here for me is, what is the plan here? There is a GAPING hole in the lineup without Devers. Jarren Duran is a good leadoff man, not a middle of the order bat. Wilyer Abreu is having a good year but has cooled off significantly after the first month of the season, not to mention he is on the IL. Abraham Toro has hit well but doesn’t walk enough for it to be sustainable, and our other big lefty (Triston Casas) is out for the year and was struggling badly before getting injured. If the plan here is really to lean on the “Big Three” then we are dead in the water, at least in the near-term future.

Campbell came out of the gate on fire for the first month and has dramatically fallen off afterward. Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony have been ok, but aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire, which honestly is to be expected even from top prospects. Those players may be stars, or they may be below average big leaguers. There really is no way to tell besides time. Placing the entire weight of this team’s trajectory on them is probably not the safest bet in mid-June. 

I’m not sure how the rest of the team feels about the move, but I imagine that quite a few players will be getting their things in order as the trade deadline approaches. I’m not sure if the Red Sox plan on keeping Alex Bregman around, but don’t be surprised if he either gets shipped to the Tigers at the deadline or he opts out after the season. Bregman was sold on coming to Boston to be on a contending team. My guess is he'll want the same come November, only this time he'll realize it won’t be here. If you are dumping salary, why stop there? Walker Buehler, Lucas Giolito, Aroldis Chapman and Liam Hendricks are all on expiring contracts, and Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu should be able to fetch some prospects (although you never know with this front office). If Devers is available to be traded for a very underwhelming major league return, what is the point of holding on to the rest? 

I also have very real concerns about what this means for our ability to negotiate contract extensions with our (hopefully) future star-level prospects, let alone convince premier free agents to sign with the team. Andrew Benintendi, Betts and Devers were all unceremoniously traded. Xander Bogaerts was basically pushed out of Boston after a laughable contract offer. Thank goodness we got Campbell and Crochet extended when we did, because I if I was Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer, I would have serious pause about a long-term commitment to this team at this point.  

The Red Sox have won five straight. They swept the Yankees at home. They are a game over .500 with pitching that is getting healthy and finding their grove.

Flush it all. Another star is gone from Boston.