I feel no angst about this at all. Raffy really lost me. I know the Sox screwed up some stuff too, but I'm afraid he really proved who was in the wrong with his non-hustle. That was confirmation that there were always going to be issues.
The timing doesn't surprise me. The meeting with Henry apparently didn't go well, Raffy's lack of hustle made matters worse. San Fran presumably made a push for the trade recently and they made an offer the Sox found acceptable.
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.
The loss of Betts stands alone. That was a grievous mistake.
Bogaerts won't earn his contract, not even close, and Devers probably won't either.
Of the three, the only one who sped their own departure was Devers. He really let us down as a teammate and a person. He'll be remembered more like Nomar.
And I expect "availability" is largely determined by usage charts that are closely monitored from Day One to the final pitch of the season - taking into account all the various health or fatigue issues that pop up along the way.
I guarantee you that actual major league baseball teams in the year 2025 use a lot more than BA, ISO, Walk Rate, SB, Runs Produced and Fielding Percentage to evaluate players.
You realize that teams have large analytics departments now?
Let's try this instead:
In 2024 he pitched 46.2 IP, which was his highest since 2018.
In 2025 he's pitched 24.0 IP, which puts him on pace for over 50.
He's not being underused in relation to his career history.
Plus those one batter outings make sense from a strategic viewpoint. The one batter would be a lefty and the last out of an inning. And only throwing 5 pitches or whatever means he'll be available for more outings.
To me the Yanks and the Rays are a big litmus test, they're both tough teams in very different ways. The Yanks want to demolish you while the Rays want to torture you with their nerdy no-name approach.