Maxbialystock

Right now Narvaez seems to be good at both, which is great, but the last 6 games suggest that his role behind the plate is much more important. Reportedly, Wong worked hard on his catching in the offseason and is improved. That's important because Narvaez can't play every day.

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.

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.

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.

Terrific narrative!! The players should get all the credit, but I would also give some to Cora, the pitching coach, and even Breslow. I do not think this is blind stupid luck.

Nick, an outstanding summary. I defended Devers relentlessly, but I agree with this trade/move and agree with you that the Sox will be fine. Well, as fine as their pitching will get them.

Meh. Without Devers the Sox have Bregman (next month), OPS .938, Ref .933, Toro .884, Gonzalez .856, Narvaez .824. Abreu .792, and Duran .740. Story and Rafaela both have OPS's in the .800's in June. I rooted like crazy for Devers and defended his position, but I agree with this move at this time. What kind of fascinates me is how Cora will manage this team because Breslow will want to play those rookies. When Bregman returns, who plays SS and 2b? When Abreu returns, who is the the starting outfield?

Credible.

I thought he had good stuff. He used his fast ball a lot but he also had some nasty breaking balls. 10 K's. And this is his 2d straight excellent start. So, much as I hate to admit it, maybe Breslow wasn't completely screwed up when he signed him. And maybe the pitching coach is working miracles because this is now 6 straight excellent starts by the rotation.

I completely agree Breslow was way out of line with Devers. He lied to him about keeping 3b, right up until he announced Bregman would play 3b and not 2b. Cora got Raffy to embrace DH, and he was excellent there and didn't miss a game. Plus all the rbi's. I was one of the few--and I don't recall that you were--rooting for Devers. Of course the Giants are thrilled and don't mind paying extra for a DH. He's exactly what they need. So let's agree that Breslow poisoned the well and made it necessary to trade Devers. On the other hand, Raffy's OPS dropped about 80 points after Bregman went on the IL not quite a month ago (May 24). OTOH, $30M/year is a bundle for a DH, especially when the Sox biggest need is pitching. OTOH, the Sox have hit reasonably well since they lost Bregman and should get better when he returns. Including Bregman and Abreu, both on the IL, the Sox have 5 hitters with OPS's ranging from .938 to .792. Duran's is .740. And this month Rafaela's is .839 and Story's is .826. If the pitching holds up, the Sox won't miss Devers. If the pitching doesn't hold up, Devers, even with an OPS of 1000--which he never had--couldn't save the Sox from a losing season.

He got three straight K's. That's great pitching! This is 2 straight great starts by Giolito.

Emphatically agree. This is 6 straight great starts by the Sox rotation and 2 of them were by Gioloto. Moreover, the Sox lineup scored just enough to win all 6 games. But winning at Seattle and against Gilbert (ERA 2.55) is huge. I think Breslow lied to Devers, but I also think letting him and his salary go was the right move. Last night's score was perfectly in line with the other 5 wins with Raffy, who was 3/18 with a dinger and 1 rbi. He was not missed last night. I do think he and Bregman were a good combo batting 2d and 3d in the lineup, but I like this lineup. The pitching is just unreal. I took a peek at the 2018 Sox schedule and saw they had a very early 8 game win streak in which the Sox pitching gave up 0, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 3, 7, and 1 runs. After losing to the Yankees, they won another 8 straight giving up 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 0, 2, and 3 runs. Those two runs, both in April, made the Sox awfully hard to catch and made possible the Sox best season ever. Good pitching sure helps and doesn't necessarily need a good defense, which the 2018 Sox did not have.

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.

I completely agree with the first part of the article and for the last month have said Breslow did not play fair with Devers. Cora did by convincing Raffy to embrace DH, which he did very successfully--see his stats. As I have also said, replacing Casas was not a problem at all because he stunk before his injury. Toro is so much better--and Gonzalez is also better. To me Casas injury was a plus for the Sox. I am more than happy to criticize Breslow and agree he screwed this up. On the other hand, Devers is vastly overpriced as a DH. Plus the Sox biggest need is pitching. As I also pointed out, without Bregman in the lineup Raffy's OPS dropped steadily. He had virtually nothing to do with what is now a 6 game winning streak. That's a tad overstated, but all I'm really trying to say is that losing Devers is not catastrophic. I do not expect Mayer, Anthony, Campbell to blossom this year. And maybe they don't have to because Bregman should be back before the ASG. Plus Toro, Narvaez, and Gonzalez all have OPS's above .800 and Abreu's is .792. Duran's is not so bad with a .740. Story's OPS in June is .826 and Rafaela's is .839. That's 5 pretty good bats and 3 that might be good. At the same time--and contrary to moonslav--I think the Sox have an above average defense. Certainly Narvaez, Bregman, Rafaela, and Abreu are in that category, and I think Story is too. Duran is adequate in LF. That leaves just 1b and 2b as the problems. If DWAR's mean anything, this defense is worlds better than the 2018 Sox defense with Bogey at SS, Raffy at 3b, Beni in LF, Nunez at 2b, and Moreland at 1b. All had negative DWAR's. 2018 was a terrific lineup because they could hit and score lots of runs. The Sox rotation has just produced 6 straight superb starts, including 3 vs the Yankees. When was the last time that happened? Better still, the Sox won all 6 games, including last night in freaking Seattle.

Gold star for moonslav. I love all of them because that's the way I feel--and I have defended Devers all season long.

Agree on Fenway effect, agree on more games played by Sox. But right now the Sox are 5th in runs scored and the 6th team, the Tigers, have also played 73 games. So the Sox are a legit 5th, and that's where they were in 2021 when they made the postseason and then the ALCS. What is wRC+ ? ESPN says the Sox ERA, 3.96, is tied with the Mariners for 17th. They were 15th in ERA in 2021, so maybe, as you say, they are competitive. I like our defense this year more than you do and think only 2b and 1b are problems. RF, CF, 3B and C are all above average. SS is steady with a DWAR of +0.4. LF is 0.0, but Duran is 5th in putouts.

Good stuff. Well said. In the most recent 5 games, all wins and all with Devers as DH, the Sox scored 3, 4, 2, 4, and 2 runs--3 runs per game.

Sox hit lefties better than righties, and two of our best against righties are/were Devers and Bregman with OPS's .907 and .915. Abreu, also on the IL, has an OPS of .828 against righties. I would DH with Gonzalez and play Campbell at 2b because both are better hitting righties (OPS's .705 and .674) than Hamilton (OPS .514). Maybe this is Cora testing Hamilton to see if he can be kept when Bregman returns. The departure of Devers takes away a very good hitter, but provides Cora some flexibility when Abreu returns this weekend.

Good plan.

I think he also said "the key to winning is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers."

Good points. I suspect Devers struggles with languages. Plus, let's face it, he knew he was good and there is no shortage of interpreters. When the Sox signed him for 10 years and $330M, learning English wasn't in the contract. I'll bet the majority of Americans playing in Japan know very little Japanese. And don't most of our Japanese players need interpreters?

Amen. The Sox have stayed at right about 6th in scoring in MLB for the whole season, with or without Bregman. But the team ERA has been as low as 23d and is now 20th. So what does that mean? It means the Sox have every reason to cough up a terrific but overpaid DH if the money saved can be spent on pitching. On top of that, we Devers was no longer happy to be on this team and management felt the same way.

Agree he's better in June than May, but in his last 7 games (June 8-15), Mookie is 5 for 26 with 1 dinger and 1 double. There can be no question that Mookie is still valuable for the Dodgers, who are 43-29. He has the third highest WAR on the team.

I have castigated Breslow as much as anyone, but Hicks is the cost of sending Devers and his huge salary elsewhere.

Meh. Betts was gone once he became a free agent because the Dodgers can afford to pay him more. Sale was a big mistake, but at the time absolutely no one--and I mean no one--on talksox said, "big mistake, he's going to win the Cy Young award in 2024." I've been beating up Breslow regularly over Giolito for Sale, but that is 20-20 hindsight. Agree the Sox ain't getting a lot for Devers, but they are dumping his salary, which is too high for a DH. I have defended Devers relentlessly, but I agree on that point. It was time for him to move on. And, by the way, the Sox have played some of their best ball over last 10 games, during which Devers went 5/25 with 2 rbi's. And don't forget Bregman was/is out also. FWIW, the Giants are happy to pay $30M/year for Devers to DH because their need is greater. Breslow didn't do Wong, Downs, Dugo, or Bello. Besides, the real point with Devers was to dump his salary. When we dumped Price on the Dodgers, we paid a big chunk of his salary.