Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
The Rafael Devers trade is already haunting the Red Sox in 2026
The Red Sox have already moved on from three pieces acquired as part of last June's trade with the Giants.
COMMENTARY
By the time the Red Sox made the call to trade Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants last June, it looked as though the bridge between the team and the disgruntled slugger had been reduced to ash.
But even if the Red Sox felt as though a long-term relationship with Devers was all but fractured, shipping out an impact bat like him was only going to be a palatable option if they received key assets in return from the Giants.
So far, that hasn’t been the case for a Red Sox team that is not only missing Devers’ bat in the heart of its order, but has largely squandered the return from San Francisco in the process.
Advertisement:
Boston has already felt the pain of a punchless lineup through the first nine games of the 2026 season, with a batting order trudging ahead without both Devers and Alex Bregman not exactly offering plenty of protection for a pressing Roman Anthony out of the leadoff spot.
Granted, the message broadcast from Craig Breslow and Boston’s top brass going into a new baseball season was that the concessions made by taking Devers’ bat out of the lineup would be offset by the fiscal flexibility available to bolster other areas of the roster.
“I don’t know that you look to replace one for one — you know, the production of a guy like Raffy, a guy like Alex, but our goal is to, you know, as a team, to win more games,“ Breslow said in February. “I think there’s a lot of different ways that we can do that, and leaning into pitching and defense is certainly one.”
Advertisement:
The Red Sox certainly leaned into pitching and defense this offseason. But, Boston has yet to see that pivot pay off.
Following Sunday’s 8-6 loss to the Padres, Boston is 2-7 on the season, losing each of its first three series against Cincinnati, Houston, and San Diego.
Boston used some of the money freed up by San Francisco taking on the remaining $254 million left on Devers’ deal to sign southpaw Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130 million contract.
Boston has dropped both of Suarez’s starts so far this season, with the lefty 0-1 with an 8.64 ERA. In his four innings of work on Sunday against the Padres, Suarez relinquished six hits, four runs, and two walks across 75 pitches.
The Red Sox’ defense hasn’t been much better, with Boston knocked for another two errors on Sunday. After committing an MLB-worst 116 errors last season, the Red Sox have been knocked for nine errors in their first nine games.
For now, things look bleak at Fenway Park for a team seemingly poised to take a step forward after last year’s brief playoff appearance.
“This is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable for the fans,” Anthony said postgame. “It’s unacceptable to the standard that we set for ourselves.”
Boston’s disheartening start to a new season would at least be assuaged to some degree if the other pieces that the Red Sox snagged from the Giants were posting promising returns.
Advertisement:
Some of them are — but for other teams.
Along with getting the Giants to take on Devers’ contract, Boston also received righty pitcher Jordan Hicks, southpaw Kyle Harrison, and a pair of prospects in first baseman James Tibbs and righty Jose Bello from San Francisco.
Less than a year later, only Bello, 20, remains in Boston’s organization.
Hicks was a downright disaster last season with the Red Sox. The hard-throwing righty was tagged with an 8.20 ERA across 21 appearances and just 18.2 innings before getting shut down for the year.
Boston traded Hicks to the White Sox in February, with the Red Sox needing to attach righty David Sandlin — the club’s No. 8 prospect at the time by MLB Pipeline — in order to get a majority of Hicks’ remaining $24 million contract off the books.
Harrison, a 24-year-old lefty who had uneven stints with San Francisco, spent the majority of the 2025 season with Triple-A Worcester after Boston plucked him from the West Coast. He ultimately appeared in three games (two starts) with Boston last season, sporting a 3.00 ERA and striking out 13 over 12 innings of work.
Given the supposed glut of pitching on Boston’s roster, the Red Sox decided to trade Harrison as part of a package deal to the Brewers in February, with Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio the headliners going back to Boston.
Advertisement:
While Durbin has labored so far with Boston (.071 average, 1 RBI), Harrison has seemingly meshed already with Milwaukee’s stout pitching pipeline — sporting a 2.61 ERA and striking out 14 over 10.1 innings in his first two outings with the Brewers in 2026.
Tibbs — San Francisco’s No. 4 prospect at the time of the Devers trade — didn’t even last two months in Boston.
After just 30 games played with Double-A Portland, the Red Sox traded Tibbs to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a package for starting pitcher Dustin May on July 31.
May didn’t move the needle down the stretch for Boston. In six appearances (five starts) with the Red Sox, May sported a 5.40 ERA, giving up 35 hits and 13 walks in just 28.1 innings of work. He signed a contract with the Cardinals in free agency this past winter.
Tibbs, meanwhile, is looking like a future star in the Dodgers’ farm system.
Now playing for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, the 23-year-old Tibbs is batting .514 with seven home runs, four doubles, one triple, and 13 RBI in just eight games.
The Red Sox already have a first baseman in Willson Contreras and a logjam of outfielders on the MLB roster.
But, it would be a great problem to have for a lagging Red Sox offense to have a prospect like Tibbs teeing off in Triple-A — rather than giving the defending World Series champs another blue-chip prospect.
And, with May being an abject failure in Boston after just five starts, dealing away Tibbs for a rental stands as some brutal asset management from the Red Sox.
Advertisement:
The 2026 Red Sox still have plenty of time to pull themselves out of this early-season tailspin. And Devers, admittedly, hasn’t teed off against pitching so far in 2026 with the Giants (.211 batting average, one home run, two RBI).
But, much like the ill-fated Mookie Betts trade that has loomed over Boston for years now, the Red Sox’ decision to trade Devers has looked like another whiff for a franchise that has been torched by several franchise-altering departures in recent years.
Be civil. Be kind.
Read our full community guidelines.To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address