Mid-season Trades

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Red Sox and Giants blockbuster: Devers to SFG for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison. Don’t know the other pieces. Short term, this is a big commitment to Anthony, Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, etc... Devers is the big long term bat SF has hunted for but can't get signed.

[Slateman]

What the freak

[Smithian]

This is a wild, wild trade

I kind of understand the Red Sox being mad at Devers and being happy to move him and his money and restart to a young core

I also understand why a Red Sox fan may be furious over this.

[Natsinpwc]

Red Sox and Giants blockbuster: Devers to SFG for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison. Don’t know the other pieces. Short term, this is a big commitment to Anthony, Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, etc... Devers is the big long term bat SF has hunted for but can't get signed.

What do you mean? They signed Willy Adames on the offseason.  SF is where the bats go to die.  Did Devers pick his position yet?

[HalfSmokes]

Red Sox and Giants blockbuster: Devers to SFG for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison. Don’t know the other pieces. Short term, this is a big commitment to Anthony, Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, etc... Devers is the big long term bat SF has hunted for but can't get signed.

The Red Sox acting like a small market team is wild

[JCA-CrystalCity]

What do you mean? They signed Willy Adames on the offseason.  SF is where the bats go to die.  Did Devers pick his position yet?

Adames, yes, but lots of misses with Judge, Ohtani, and other huge bats. Devers is a bigger bat than Adames.

Devers was the one that was kept among Betts, Bogaerts, and Devers, so fans will be furious. That said, it's a bit of not chasing an unlikely WC spot this year in exchange for financial flex and future pieces. If Anthony Duran and Abreu plus others surprise and they remain in it near the trade deadline, they can add.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

The Red Sox acting like a small market team is wild

that's been the knock since the Mookie deal until the Bregman signing. Now, Bregman gets dealt at the deadline if the Sox are out of the wc. If they surprise, then they have cash to keep Bregman.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

one interesting angle: Liverpool just shelled out plenty for Florian Wirtz. IDK who tf Wirtz is, but it was 135 million pounds, and FSG of course owns Liverpool.

[Dave in Fairfax]

one interesting angle: Liverpool just shelled out plenty for Florian Wirtz. IDK who tf Wirtz is, but it was 135 million pounds, and FSG of course owns Liverpool.

Forbes ranks the Red Sox as the 3rd most valuable MLB franchise and Liverpool FC as the 4th most valuable association football franchise in the world. Florian Wirtz is a highly regarded 22-year old German player for Bayer Leverkusen.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

The relevance of Wirtz is that the Red Sox fanbase think if he's spending on Liverpool Henry goes tight on the Sox.

[Count Walewski]

It seems odd that this was the best offer for Devers but one thing I've noticed about elite franchises in all the sports I follow is that they are always way bigger than just one guy and they're accordingly less hesitant to fire a coach or release a player for seemingly minor offenses.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I don't think it's a nothing package considering the Giants are eating all of Devers contract. KLaw says that Harrison's breaking ball needs work, and he'll be held in AAA rather than joining the rotation. IDK if some of that is also managing his service time, but the dude was pretty highly regarded in 2024 when he graduated rookie status (#24 on MLB list; KLaw had him #11 as the second best pitcher). Tibbs is also interesting. His actual numbers this year are comparable to Braden Montgomery at the same level (A+). Bottom of the top 100 on some lists, I think. Hicks can be used as a reliever; taking him on was in lieu of sending cash but he could be useful.

In a weird way, with the Red Sox's commitment to Anthony, Mayer, and Campbell, the development of Narvaez, plus previous products like Rafaela, Abreu and Duran, they kind of resemble what we hope Wood, Crews, House, Garcia, Young and Abrams turn into. Right now, Boston's group I think is more hyped, but Wood is delivering while Anthony is just getting his chance. Campbell after a hot start may not have done as much as Crews, and Mayer and House are just getting started. Duran > Abrams, clearly, in part because neither  is a shortstop.

[Smithian]

I think the Red Sox cutting ties with Devers is defensible in a vacuum. The problem is when you put that in context of the Mookie Betts trade and the Red Sox have not had a winning record since 2021, it's tough for Red Sox fans to accept.

I don't claim to understand the Giants finances, but this trade to me feels like it will look gross not far down the road.

I think this trade could somehow be a short term Red Sox loss and long term Giants loss more than a win for either. Long term, there is so much scar tissue in Red Sox-land that I don't know how the fans get over this until you start seeing lots of extensions, and even then I think they'll be scared to accept things have changed. For the Giants, in the short term I don't think they're better than the Dodgers or Mets. I don't think they win a series versus either without some fluke results, which they could have accomplished without Devers. I think the Giants were better rolling with their current core.

I honestly would still prefer to be the Red Sox right now to the Giants. Their minor looked stacked and they have payroll flexibility. If you can ride out the fanbase toxicity and get in postseason, feelings can be thawed in a hurry.

[Elvir Ovcina]

I think the Red Sox cutting ties with Devers is defensible in a vacuum. The problem is when you put that in context of the Mookie Betts trade and the Red Sox have not had a winning record since 2021, it's tough for Red Sox fans to accept.

I don't claim to understand the Giants finances, but this trade to me feels like it will look gross not far down the road.

I think this trade could somehow be a short term Red Sox loss and long term Giants loss more than a win for either. Long term, there is so much scar tissue in Red Sox-land that I don't know how the fans get over this until you start seeing lots of extensions, and even then I think they'll be scared to accept things have changed. For the Giants, in the short term I don't think they're better than the Dodgers or Mets. I don't think they win a series versus either without some fluke results, which they could have accomplished without Devers. I think the Giants were better rolling with their current core.

I honestly would still prefer to be the Red Sox right now to the Giants. Their minor looked stacked and they have payroll flexibility. If you can ride out the fanbase toxicity and get in postseason, feelings can be thawed in a hurry.

This is pretty much right.  Devers' contract is going to be Giancarlo Stanton, plus you have to put up with his personality for nine years.  The team's comments on it seemed to insuinuate that his teammates were also tired of him.

[IanRubbish]

Very happy about the Devers trade with the Giants being my other team, as are most fans here.  It's the kind of ballsy move Farhan never would have made, and Devers seems to be happy to be here.  The Giants have also had the payroll room to do this and they hate signing players past 36 or so, and Devers contract goes til then.  They also need bats.  They have a top notch bullpen and a strong rotation, especially at the top with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray.  But Oracle is a tough place to hit and it hasn't helped that Chapman's been hurt and Adames hasn't been hitting.

As much as I wasn't a Farhan fan, he's Branch Rickey compared to Rizzo.  Giants make mistakes but they're a class act org unilke Mini Me's clown show.  If Bob Melvin ever said (and did) what Davey did he'd be long gone and ownership wouldn't hold onto him just because they had to pay another manager.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

In Boston, there's some bad mouthing Harrison and Tibbs, as in not only did they give up Devers, but they should have gotten better prospects who could help 2025. Has the hopes for Harrison crashed in the past year?

[nobleisthyname]

This trade gives me Out of the Park Baseball trading vibes, at least the Red Sox side of it. Feels like the sorta thing I do when I sign a promising young player to a long extension and then they don't pan out fully so I just do the "Shop a Player" action and see what offers the computer gives me from other teams.

Which to say, this feels like the Red Sox FO are being too analytical and robotic, even if on paper this is the right move. Posey also seems to have a good feel for these things so far.

Of course we won't know for sure if this was the right move for the Red Sox or not for probably another few years.

[Slateman]

In Boston, there's some bad mouthing Harrison and Tibbs, as in not only did they give up Devers, but they should have gotten better prospects who could help 2025. Has the hopes for Harrison crashed in the past year?

Pretty much.

I think a lot of fans are underestimating how difficult that contract was to move. He's 28 and already a DH. And that contract goes through his age 36 season. Giants took all of it.

Now that doesn't mean much if Breslow doesn't do something with this money. But I think it was a combination of Breslow not having signed that contract in the first place, and Devers not wanting to play first or DH.

[IanRubbish]

In Boston, there's some bad mouthing Harrison and Tibbs, as in not only did they give up Devers, but they should have gotten better prospects who could help 2025. Has the hopes for Harrison crashed in the past year?

The Giants were thrashing him between the pen and the rotation, and he gets reunited with former pitching coach Andrew Bailey in Boston.  But the Giants have a lot more org depth at pitcher than with hitters, so made a ton of sense to trade one of many arms to get a legit MLB-level bat.  I liked Tibbs because he walked a lot, but he's not a 2025 impact player and Red Sox fans aren't into rebuilds, reboots, and waiting til next year, as they shouldn't be.

[IanRubbish]

I think a lot of fans are underestimating how difficult that contract was to move. He's 28 and already a DH. And that contract goes through his age 36 season. Giants took all of it.

Just about every contending team, especially in the higher revenue East and West divisions, is paying one or more players past 35 on a risky contract.  Half of the top OPS leaders are between 30 and 35 and it's hard to get the high performing 30-35 year olds like Aaron Judge, Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado, Shohei, Jose Ramirez etc without paying them into their late 30s.    In the good days, this team did it with Ryan Zimmerman, Max, and Jayson Werth.  Speculation is Boston will now have to extend Alex Bregman, or try to go after Kyle Tucker.  The Giants had to take this risk to compete against the Dodgers and Padres. 

[Smithian]

I will admit after a few comparisons of the Devers and Guerrero Jr contracts that I like this deal more than I did for the Giants.

Contracts for bat only players who you hope stick at 1B are getting insane. Devers contract isn’t that bad if he turns into a solid fielder at 1B.

[IanRubbish]

I will admit after a few comparisons of the Devers and Guerrero Jr contracts that I like this deal more than I did for the Giants.

Contracts for bat only players who you hope stick at 1B are getting insane. Devers contract isn’t that bad if he turns into a solid fielder at 1B.

The Giants are like the Red Sox, Cubs, Braves and Astros in that they'll pay big $, but not past age 36 or so like the Mets/Yankees/Phillies/Dodgers/Padres/Rangers/Angels will. 

[Slateman]

I will admit after a few comparisons of the Devers and Guerrero Jr contracts that I like this deal more than I did for the Giants.

Contracts for bat only players who you hope stick at 1B are getting insane. Devers contract isn’t that bad if he turns into a solid fielder at 1B.

He isn't want to play 1B though.

I think that stuck with the Sox a lot.

[IanRubbish]

He isn't want to play 1B though.

I think that stuck with the Sox a lot.

For whatever reason, he has a new attitude with the Giants and said publicly he'd play anywhere they ask. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

With the Red Sox, Devers wasn't consulted or given a heads up before he was told. He probably bristles about that. Maybe he thought, "I am your cornerstone highest paid player who has been with this team the longest. You should talk to me about Bregman before telling me I need to move because you signed him."