Fittingly, Rafael Devers’s final Red Sox at-bat was a walk because the Sox handed him his walking papers while moonwalking away from prioritizing this season.
The Sox authorized chief Devers antagonist/chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to send him packing in a seismic trade with the Giants on Sunday because he was setting a bad example for the prized prospects, not covering a roster hole for Breslow.
The unavoidable conclusion is that when faced with this Fenway Feud between their best everyday player and their bright but still-learning head of baseball ops, the Sox bet on Breslow. They better pray they’re right.
To represent the right choice, Breslow needs to deploy the Duck Boats for a championship joyride during his tenure. Otherwise, the Sox committed another critical error in continuing a trend this decade of emphasizing the minds in baseball operations over the men in uniform.
Give Breslow credit, dealing Devers in the middle of a five-game winning streak and hours after his team authored the first sweep suffered by the first-place Yankees this season is an unflinchingly bold move. This trade is now Breslow’s version of Reaganomics — an unyielding ideological stance forever knitted into his legacy. It will define his tenure.
“A lot of the moves he has made have been bold and decisive and rooted in what is in the best interests of the baseball team,” said Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy, ownership’s PR proxy.
Breslow believed so deeply in the culture-undercutting divisiveness created by Devers’s refusal to play first base following a season-ending injury to Triston Casas on May 2 that he excised him from the clubhouse at the expense of this season and for a tepid return.
Despite what Breslow and Kennedy tried to sell in a Monday media session, this wasn’t a baseball trade. It was a calculated dumping of Devers, both personality and paycheck. The Sox freed themselves of his insolence and pricy salary. The Giants assumed the rest of his salary this season and the remaining $254.5 million left on the 10-year, $313.5 million extension the Red Sox blithely handed him in 2023 to save face after the departures of Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.
It’s worse than the MLB version of the Mavericks jettisoning Luka Doncic (Luka and Raffy do sport similar physiques, no?) because there’s nothing remotely comparable to an Anthony Davis talent coming back.
Two of the three pitchers the Sox acquired, Jordan Hicks and minor leaguer Jose Bello, profile best as relievers. All the chips are on lefthander Kyle Harrison, a highly-touted prospect who has yet to live up to the hype. Prospect James Tibbs is another left-handed hitting outfielder; the Sox need those like you need another streaming service subscription.
Players are people, and people are imperfect. Devers displayed warts that would make a dermatologist blanch, initially balking at moving off third base for Alex Bregman and extending to his standoffish stance with team personnel and the media.
But the team was winning, and he was producing at DH. It’s not his fault the thought leaders at Fenway didn’t recognize that he’s not a franchise frontman, a leader, or a winner. He’s only a hitter.
Devers’s recurring recalcitrance bothered ownership, led by John Henry (you know what else he owns), and Breslow, whom Devers skewered earlier in expressing his displeasure with being asked to switch positions again, more than it was affecting the team.
It constituted a bridge too far for Breslow and Co.
“I do think that as we think about the identity, the culture, and the environment that is created by great teams, there was something amiss here,” said Breslow. “It was something that we needed to act decisively to course-correct.”
The timing feels tone-deaf. Just when fans think they’re turning the corner, the Sox throw it in reverse by telling Raffy to hit the road.
Whether you believe in Breslow or not, this trade simply doesn’t jibe with the “extreme urgency” for a deep postseason run rhetoric proffered this offseason.
Suddenly, that line feels like British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pledging he has secured peace for our time. Trading your best hitter in June for pieces that don’t improve your major league roster displays the antithesis of “extreme urgency.”
Both Kennedy and Breslow worked assiduously — yet unconvincingly — to put that toothpaste back in the tube.
“I think it’s important to point out that this is in no way signifying a waving of the white flag on 2025,” said Breslow. “We are as committed as we were six months ago to putting a winning team on the field, to competing for the division, and to making a deep postseason run.”
We must call the yearly pledges of prioritizing contention what they are — the mendacity of hope, misleading messaging inconsistent with the club’s actions.
While the Sox were preoccupied with the message Devers’s defiance/aversion to sacrifice sent to the clubhouse, what’s the message delivered by trading their best hitter during a winning streak to cultivate a culture suited to baseball baptizing prospects Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kristian Campbell?
Kids over wins.
A disconcerting disconnect between baseball ops and the clubhouse remains. A former Sox pitcher, Breslow was supposed to bridge the gap that his predecessor, Chaim Bloom, couldn’t. Instead, he managed to alienate the team’s highest-paid player and last link to World Series success.
Bravo, Bres.
It’s worth remembering Devers isn’t the only intransigent party here. There’s a fine line between intelligence and conviction vs. arrogance and obduracy.
To his credit, Breslow acknowledged, “I need to own things that I could’ve done better.”
There’s zero reason Breslow and the Sox couldn’t have at least tried uber prospect Anthony at first base in Triple A. Also, the team hastily pulled the plug on using Campbell at first, right before he was slated to debut.
The only “alignment” — a business-speak buzzword justifying the trade — Breslow foresaw for a roster problem he’s responsible for was Devers sliding to first, knowing another position shift was anathema to Devers.
That pushed the detonator on this relationship implosion.
Breslow got the final word in his standoff with Devers, but the 2025 Red Sox and their fans got a raw deal.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.
