Why has Rafael Devers’ trade not been reduced to a one-sided victory even as time has passed?
The slugger who moved to the San Francisco Giants played consistently, but the trajectories of the Boston Red Sox and Giants diverged differently from expectations at the time of the trade.
The lineup gap, his new defensive position, and the bullpen protecting leads late in games complicate the evaluation of a single transaction.
3-Line Summary
1. Devers played all 217 of the Giants’ games
2. The Red Sox went 21-4 in July
3. The trade must be evaluated by looking at both the lineup and the bullpen
June 2025, the Red Sox Slugger Left Behind on the Plane
Rafael Devers is an infielder for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. According to the Boston Herald, on Father’s Day 2025, the day the Red Sox were preparing to leave for Seattle, he was left off the team plane, and news of his move to the Giants soon followed. Just before that, the Red Sox had won 5 straight games, including a 3-game sweep of the New York Yankees, and had moved above a .500 winning percentage for the first time since late May.
The context of his contract also contributed to the shock. About 2 years before the trade, Devers had signed the largest contract in Red Sox history. The Boston Herald described the relationship between the player and the club as having become confrontational within a matter of months. However, this account alone cannot establish a single cause for the transaction. What is clearer is that the fact that a key hitter changed teams during the season was received as a major shock across baseball at the time.
Even when Devers visited Fenway Park in August 2026, the crowd’s reaction was not one-sided. The Boston Herald reported that every plate appearance brought both appreciative cheers and loud, sustained boos. Some viewed the process that led to the trade as a failure of the club’s management, while others looked at the result that the Red Sox showed better momentum after the trade. That is why different interpretations overlapped in the scene of the same player returning to his former home ballpark.
The 218-Game Record and the Change to First-Base Defense
In the statistics presented by the Boston Herald ahead of Saturday’s game, Devers had appeared in 218 games in a Giants uniform, recording a .241 batting average, 46 home runs, 121 RBIs, and a .801 OPS. In his first 90 games after the trade, he posted 20 home runs and a .807 OPS. He has also hit 26 home runs this season, making it difficult to view him as a player whose extra-base production disappeared after the trade.
The impression changes when looking only at the start of the season. In March and April, he recorded a .207 batting average, 2 home runs, a .537 OPS, and 40 strikeouts. The article’s account that his performance recovered afterward must also be considered, so that the first 2 months are not expanded into an overall assessment of his post-trade performance. In particular, after joining San Francisco, he appeared in all 217 of the 217 games available to him. The post-trade evaluation includes not only his home runs but also whether he was able to keep taking the field.
The change in defensive position is also important. Devers had said he would not play first-base defense in Boston, but he took the position with the Giants. According to the article, his Defensive Runs Saved was +2 last year and -1 this season. By contrast, Statcast’s Fielding Run Value rated him in the bottom 16th percentile and viewed both his defensive range and throwing ability as below average. The fact that he actually played the new position is confirmed, but it is difficult to go so far as to conclude that he is an outstanding first baseman based on that alone.
The Red Sox’s Rebound Also Involves Numbers Outside the Lineup
The Red Sox lineup clearly showed a gap immediately after Devers’ trade. The team hit 97 home runs, the eighth-fewest in Major League Baseball after the trade. But its 183 doubles were the most in the league, and its 433 runs scored from June 16 onward ranked eighth. That is why the decline in home runs alone cannot support the claim that the entire offense stopped.
Through the first 78 games of the season, the Red Sox ranked last in the league with 307 runs, had the second-fewest home runs with 67, and posted a .697 OPS. However, since June 25, Boston has led Major League Baseball with 274 runs and a .781 OPS. Wilson Contreras hit 26 home runs, matching Devers’ total, and the Boston Herald reported that he provided better defense at first base. This does not mean that Contreras completely replaced Devers; rather, it records how the lineup and defensive structure moved in a different way.
The San Francisco Chronicle pointed to the bullpen as a factor behind the teams’ diverging trajectories. The Red Sox went 21-4 in July and at one point recorded 15 consecutive wins. As of before Sunday, the Red Sox bullpen had a 2.92 ERA and 9 blown saves, while the Giants had a 4.25 ERA and 20 blown saves. Since the start of July, Boston had 2 blown saves and the Giants had 10.
Giants president of baseball operations Zack Minasian said it was impossible to hide the difficulties in the 9th inning and mentioned addressing them as an issue. Boston’s Eric Miller, on the other hand, believed that a good bullpen makes close-game victories easier and is not unrelated to winning streaks. This shows that an individual player’s trade and a team’s results do not connect in a simple straight line. The loss of Devers’ bat, his production with the Giants, and the Red Sox’s ability to protect leads late in games must be considered together.
Sources
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