Shocker! Red Sox trade Devers to Giants
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Good morning, all!
Until 1986, the Major League Baseball trade deadline used to be June 15. This season it will be July 31, but that did not stop the Boston Red Sox from shocking the baseball world by trading slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, just hours after the Red Sox completed a three-game sweep of their hated rivals, the New York Yankees. Devers, in fact, homered for his last hit as a Red Sox.
The Red Sox are reportedly getting righthanded pitcher Jordan Hicks, lefty swingman Kyle Harrison and two minor leaguers, outfielder James Tibbs III and Jose Bello, a righthander in rookie ball.
Devers, the face of the Red Sox franchise, was having another monster season with 15 HRs and 58 RBI. The three-time All-Star was in his ninth season with the team. Boston signed him to an 11-year contract extension worth $331M in January 2023 in some part to quell the backlash after the Mookie Betts trade, but also because Devers was one of the game’s premier players.
The club’s relationship with Devers started going downhill in February, when they signed free agent Alex Bregman, a third baseman. The Sox moved Devers off third and made him the full time DH at only 28-years of age. Devers was not happy with the move, and when Boston wanted to make him a first baseman he balked.
The Red Sox, who had been languishing below .500, 12 games behind the first place Yankees in the loss column, have turned it around recently, taking five of six from the Yankees and winning 10 of their last 15 games. Adding to the turnaround were the recent promotions of highly-touted prospects Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony.
The trade, which has become the talk of the baseball world, seemed to catch everybody by surprise. Devers was reportedly on the plane about to take the Red Sox to Seattle, when he was pulled and informed he had been dealt. Coincidentally, the Red Sox will play at San Francisco this upcoming weekend.
After basking in the glow of the weekend sweep of the Yankees at Fenway, one now wonders what this will mean for the Red Sox? Certainly their dominance of the Yankees has been relegated to a second tier story. And they have unloaded Devers, who has feasted off of Yankees pitching for years.
As for the Giants, they are battling the Dodgers and Padres for the NL West title, and the acquisition of Devers makes them a better club. San Francisco will pick up the rest of Devers contract. Meanwhile, former Giants star Buster Posey, now the president of baseball operations for the club, shows he is not afraid to make moves.
Incidentally, it did not take the Giants long to photoshop Devers:
And let the record show, even though June 15 is no longer the trade deadline, the Red Sox reminded us of what that day once was with this blockbuster deal.
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