Unless you’ve been unconscious for the last 24 hours, the vast majority of Boston Red Sox fans are enraged that the team traded Rafael Devers to the Giants. While there are some that think that Boston could benefit from the long-term financial flexibility, it does feel like most observers think very little of the Red Sox’s course of action.
However, this move also feel eerily, and unfortunately, familiar to another widely lampooned move by former Red Sox executive Chaim Bloom.
Back in 2020, Mookie Betts was solidifying his place as one of the best players in baseball. However, he was also about to be a free agent and it was becoming abundantly clear that the Red Sox, led by Bloom, were not going to offer Betts an extension he would be willing to sign. By February, it was becoming clear that a trade was coming, and the Red Sox ultimately finalized a widely-panned trade with the LA Dodgers.
Somehow, Craig Breslow and the Red Sox front office have matched — or even exceeded — that dark day in team history.
Red Sox trading Rafael Devers feels like a Chaim Bloom-level grift by the front office
Looking back at the Betts trade, the return was pretty pathetic, even for just one year of the superstar. Boston received just Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo, and Connor Wong for Betts, who immediately hit the ground running with the Dodgers and was handed a very lucrative contract extension that the Red Sox probably should have offered him.
However, this Devers trade may somehow be the greater sin and might have Red Sox fans longing for Bloom to return to Boston. Yes, Devers was owed a lot of money that could be reinvested in the roster elsewhere, and the team’s relationship was fractured mostly because Breslow and Co. didn’t take a basic communications course in college.
That said, trading almost nine years of team control of Devers to the Giants somehow only yielded Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs, Jose Bello, and the ghost of Jordan Hicks?! That’s struggling (and injured) rotation arm that throws hard and three prospects. And who actually thinks that all of those payroll savings are going to be reinvested?
Right now, Red Sox fans are feeling conned. Many of them thought they were getting a pitching genius to run their front office in Breslow and that the times of selling stars for pennies on the dollar were over. As it turns out, it was more of the same, if not worse, under this regime. Not only did the Red Sox lose their best hitter and a fan favorite, but now they run the risk of not being able to extend players in the future. After all, if the Red Sox were willing to trade Devers and his long-term deal, no one seems like they would be safe.