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Boston Red Sox looked to turn their season by sweeping New York Yankees over the weekend – and then they traded away their franchisee.
Shortly after the SOX finished the three-game beat of the bombers, they sent Rafael Devers, who came on Sunday over the green monster, to the San Francisco giants.
The writing had been on the wall for some time after Sox signed third Baseman Alex Bregman, and eventually Devers refused to play the first base. Devers has only been a designated hitter all season.
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Boston Red Sox’s Rafael Devers, No. 11, tilt his bat after hit a home drive against Houston Astros during the sixth round of a baseball match on Tuesday, August 2, 2022 in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
“In the end, I think it’s pretty clear that we couldn’t find adaptation to Raffy,” Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy told journalists on Monday via mlb.com. “We all worked on it in the last several months and went back to the high season and started with [manager] Alex Cora and [chief baseball officer] Craig [Brewslow] and the staff and then up to me and all the way up to [owner] John Henry.
“We worked on it. We had a different vision for him in the future than he had and we couldn’t get there. We couldn’t find adaptation and we reached the bending point and made the decision to take a big step.”
Despite losing far their best bats, Breslow said a pitcher in 13 MLB seasons that the move “in no way denotes a wavelification of the white flag of 2025.”
In fact, Breslow actually believes that trade will result in a better product in the near future. “I think there’s a real chance that Breslow at the end of the season,” said Breslow, “we’re looking back and we’ve won more games than we would otherwise have.”
For what it is worth, Sox Seattle Mariners, 2-0, beat Monday night in their first match in the era after Devers.
Boston Red Sox’s Rafael Devers, #11, responds on the way to the first base after being hit by a pitch during the sixth lap of a baseball match against New York Yankees on Sunday 8 June 8, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
Ex-Red Sox Star calls Teams Rafael Devers-Handel ‘Crazy’
Devers was the last man in world champion SOX 2018, still in Boston – but now all $ 250 million is left on his deal now San Francisco’s responsibility. Breslow insisted that the deal was not an attempt to cut down on the payroll – as agreements for Mookie Betts, who continued to win two World Series in Los Angeles, or Chris Sale, who won the NL Cy Young Award in his first season with Braves.
But with lots of cash that is now available and a team that is right during the autumn period, Breslow said the front office will continue to look for ways to improve the team, with a mid-lineup hitting a new need.
“For some reason, this team (s) is an example where it was all larger than the sum of the parts,” he said. “And being great teammates and victims and stepping up to each other and embodying this shared vision, we believe that these are principles that we have to be true to.
Rafael Devers, No. 11 of Boston Red Sox, responds before a spring training Grapefruit League match against Tampa Bay Rays on February 26, 2023 in Jetblue Park in Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida. (Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
“And then at the end of the season, I think we could look back and say that we have won more games than we would otherwise have, because of the way this list is now able to get together.”
