bobo52

Trading Devers and his $29 million a year contracts looks like an excellent move with him having a mediocre age 29 year with the Giants - currently posting a 786 OPS and 1.6 WAR. The real trade was to use the Devers money to pick up Wilson Contreras for $18 million a year (for 3 years) who is more productive at almost half the cost with a .912 OPS and 4.0 WAR. In addition the Red Sox got Kyle Harrison in the Devers trade - who (along with Shane Drohan) was traded for Caleb Durbin (.729 OPS and 3.3 WAR) , Andrew Monasterio (.776, 1.5) and Anthony Siegler (.708, .5). Receiving anything back in return - was a bonus - the real win was unloading the big-money contract that will pay a declining skill hitter that we would have paid for 8 more years - until he is 37 in 2034. Of course Durbin on his own looks to be better than Devers right now and they pay him $800K and have 2 more years of team control. So to recap: We got Contreras, Monasterio and Durbin who now cost us under $20 million a year combined - and the Red Sox gave up Devers and his $29 million a year contracts. Devers contract made him replaceable by a highly paid free agent - he just wasnt worth it. Team control and good contracts are a necessity to build a winner. If you throw money in bad contracts away to keep a star on the decline the team will suffer. Breslow gets an Aplus for this move now that we can look at other in hindsight.

Eric Miller and Tarik Skubal are in demand because they are hard throwing Left Handed Pitchers. You beat the Dodgers with LHP. The Dodgers wanted Skubal partially so they wouldn't have to face him. Breslow has built the Red Sox with 4 LH starters (and Crochet!) and now Chapman and Miller as hard throwing lefties out of the bullpen - to beat the Dodgers. See the facts below - Freddie Freeman is a league average hitter against Lefties and an MVP candidate against Righties. Mookie Betts is an easy out against lefties. Dalton Rushing is below league average against lefties and Will Smith is abysmal with a .434 OPS against lefties. Even Ohtani is a bit more of a mortal against lefties. Dodgers Starters Hitter Bats OPS vs RHP OPS vs LHP Shohei Ohtani L .915 .885 Andy Pages R .751 .880 Freddie Freeman L .943 .719 Max Muncy L .852 .851 Mookie Betts R .749 .589 Kyle Tucker L .688 .763 Teoscar Hernández R .708 .725 Tommy Edman S .928 .848 Dalton Rushing L .836 .692 STARTING 9 AVERAGE .804 .731

Agree totally - if you actually look at Breslows moves - they have been fantastic. The problem is that Trevor Story and Roman Anthony haven't performed/are injured and Duran, Durbin, Mayerhave underperformed so far - looking for a reversion to the mean.