My son Harry, on Father’s Day, broke the news of the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants trade last night in a text with three letters – WTF. For those of you keeping score at home, that stands for What The ‘Word that sounds like Luck but starts with an F.’ Rafael Devers, signed as a teenager by the Boston Red Sox out of the Dominican Republic, 2018 World Series champ and starting 3rd baseman, played 9 seasons of great baseball for the Red Sox at a high level, umpteen home runs, umpteen doubles, umpteen whacks on the head after a missed fastball down the middle of the plate, mere hours after a successful and important weekend (June 13 – 15) home stand in which the Boston Red Sox swept the New York Yankees with Devers help was traded for four San Francisco Giants players, 2 being Pro level, 2 being prospect level. WTF has to be the initial shock and reaction for most Boston Red Sox fans. But with all due respect to my son and others, I am not that shocked. Here is why:

Fans don’t run Major League Baseball organizations. MLB teams have a gigantic roster of wicked smart baseball operations personnel that make decisions for today, tomorrow, and 6 years from now. Some, 10 years from now. Fans judge and criticize and want instant gratification. Baseball ops people tend to care about the bigger picture than a single game loss or a single hit or a single strikeout in a game. They are always balancing both short term and long term objectives and have to somehow marry the two, which is why it is so difficult to manage a Major League organization. If it were up to fans, every player would get benched or traded or demoted for every negative play, strikeout, or error they make. Most fans don’t get why a player is traded away in the prime of their season or career. Most fans don’t understand the short term, imminent goals of a team that is seesawing around the .500 mark in the standings. Most fans would never have traded a player like Rafael Devers. Here is how I believe it went down:

This Devers trade happened weeks ago, in my opinion. The timing of the trade/announcement of the trade was weird giving Devers recent success and the team’s recent success. Why would you trade a guy who just hit a home run to help you beat your AL East rivals, the New York Yankees? In my opinion, because you didn’t trade him yesterday, the trade was finalized yesterday. The trade or the constructs of the trade probably happened in middle to late May to early June (this year) while the details of the trade have been on the ironing board since. Trades do not happen overnight. Players involved, money, legal stuff – all have to be negotiated. It is not as simple as a single phone call or text and the deal is done. From a press release standpoint, trades are announced when the two sides agree to let the information go public. Devers was traded weeks ago, I am 1000% sure of it. The Red Sox probably told him and his representation to keep playing just in case the contracts and traded players and money owed items fell through. So, why was a 3 time All-Star player on the rise traded away during a momentous rise in the standings by the Boston Red Sox? Here are my thoughts…

The Boston Red Sox Organization appear to be making a statement about the type of player they prefer to have at the Major League level. Rafael Devers played 3rd base and DH’ed for his entire 9 season career with Boston. To my knowledge, I never saw or heard Devers play any other position but 3rd in the field and DH in the lineup. This season, Devers was “relegated” to the primary DH role with the addition of free agent Alex Bregman. After some chatter in Spring Training and a slow start at the plate in 2025, Devers seem to fit nicely in this new role. With key injuries happening in the infield, the Red Sox organization asked Devers to help out and learn/play 1st Base, which he publicly declined to do. So, Devers became a man occupying one position on the team – DH. And for this reason, I believe, Devers became expendable in the eyes and minds of the Boston Red Sox Organization. Because the type of player they prefer at the Major League level is more like…

• Kristian Campbell – has played games at 2b, CF, LF and is learning the 1st Base position
• Ceddanne Rafaela – gold glove caliber center fielder, has one game this year at 2b, could start tomorrow at shortstop, an elite multi position defensive player
• David Hamilton – has played defensively at 2b, SS, 3b
• Abraham Toro – started playing 1b when Triston Casas went down, has also played a ton of 3rd base
• Romy Gonzalez – has played 1b, 2b, 3b this season, last year played both infield and outfield positions defensively
• Marcelo Mayer – called up and has played stellar defense at 3b, played SS and 2B and 3b in the minor leagues the past few seasons
• Nick Sogard, when he was up in Boston played multiple positions. Rob Reifsnyder, Alex Bregman, Trevor Story – can play at least 2 positions in the infield, if not 3.

The pattern, from where I sit, is the Boston Red Sox want players that can play multiple positions at the Major League level. They want players that can be flexed from the outfield to the infield, from 2b to SS, from 3b to SS, and so on. They want left handed batters to face righties, righties to face left handed pitchers, and have these key, versatile players in the field defensively every night, sometimes at different positions than the previous game. They want versatile, reliable defensive players to complement their pitching staff. A pitching staff that, other then top of the line ace Garrett Crochet, put a lot of balls in play. Thus, the need for high level defensive players. And with the trade and this new roster construction, they are loaded with versatile defensive players. And have other options for the DH role. Sure, none are as amazing as Rafael Devers, but the big picture needs to come into focus here. Defense, pitching, and versatility are where the Red Sox are focused right now. This is why the Rafael Devers move makes sense to me. Devers did not fit into the current Boston Red Sox player profile.

I will miss Devers, but not tremendously. I never really got the sense that Devers was the kind of Boston Red Sox team leader like his predecessors Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz. Devers was a character, much like Johnny Damon or Kevin Millar, whose at bat antics and facial expressions were always entertaining. But, as a Red Sox team leader? I never really bought into that. Great hitter, absolutely. Defensive 3rd baseman, average at best. Sox fans, remember the Nomar Garciaparra trade and why that happened and what happened as a result? This Devers trade feels eerily similar in its calculations. Trading a star hitter away clears the way for how the Boston Red Sox want to attack the beast which is the American League East – Defense, pitching, versatile lineup.

And this Boston Red Sox fan is 1000% on board with their decision. Care to comment or debate? Bring it on…