The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The shocking trade sending Rafael Devers from the Red Sox to the Giants (1:15)
- The Red Sox drama that led to the trade (4:25)
- The constant shuffling of deck chairs with the Red Sox over the past decade (7:40)
- The pieces the Red Sox got in return: Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and James Tibbs (20:00)
- The fit with Devers and the Giants (recorded before the news of Devers getting work at first base) (30:55)
- Aaron Civale asking the Brewers for a trade and getting flipped to the White Sox for Andrew Vaughn (45:20)
Check out our past episodes!
- White Sox Ownership, Roman Anthony, And The Diamondbacks’ Rotation – listen here
- Jarren Duran Rumors, Caglianone And Young Promoted, And Pitching Injuries – listen here
- Bregman Injured, Marcelo Mayer Called Up, And Pirates Talk – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images
He should have already been Boston’s first baseman. They should have traded Casas for pitching, and told Raffy— in no uncertain terms— that he was moving across the diamond. He is an atrocious third baseman, he can’t not know it.
The Red Sox dropped the ball hard at every step of the way, like they always do. It’s ridiculous. They’re a multibillion dollar franchise that can’t get out of its own way.
Of course, they’re going to have to give all that saved money to Bregman, of they’re going to be right back up the creek without a paddle because they still have too many lefties.
Leave it to the Red Sox to solve one problem with a “solution” that only creates three new problems
Should’ve included in original comment, but those three problems being:
1. As much as I like Bregman and want to have him for more than only 2025, I just know now he’s going to end up wildly overpaid and with a contract term that surpasses his shelf life as a high level player by multiple years
2. Tibbs does seem like an interesting prospect, but – would you look at that – another lefty. I like that they got someone who could be in the picture at first base, but even if he shows he is big league ready it doesn’t solve the L/R imbalance.
3. So what about this season? I understand not wanting the back end of Raffy’s contract, but that’s a 2030/beyond problem, and in the meantime they were supposed to be back to trying to make a serious effort to contend here in 2025. Where’s the replacement for a guy with a 153 OPS+, 15 bombs, and 59 RBI coming from? When fully healthy, this could have been a playoff caliber lineup. Without Devers? No. Abreu coming back soon should help somewhat, same with whenever Bregman is good to go, but unless they find a way to go get another established big bat they are not going to convince me that they’re trying. And if they aren’t trying, then Cora needs to quit platooning Mayer and Anthony and let them play every day. If we are punting on yet another season, then there is zero excuse for not making their development priorities one, two, and three. Pick a coherent effing direction for this team, please!
No uncertain terms. How is THAT going to work?
Even though Mookie Betts is the hill I’d prefer to die on over Devers, who clearly was also not 100% in the right in how he handled this issue either, I’m really at a loss for how I feel about the Red Sox at the moment. Trading Devers on its own in a vacuum wouldn’t be an unforgivable sin, but after everything that’s led up to this moment it does feel like a final straw of sorts for me.
I am fortunate that I got to come of age during the golden era of Red Sox baseball. I’ll never pretend like I was some long suffering fan who finally got to see it pay off, truth is I was born in the 90’s so I don’t remember more than a year or two at most before ’04. But that was certainly the season that signed, sealed, and delivered me as an all-in Sox fan for life. Even though I didn’t endure much of the curse era myself, I understood the gravity of it and how blessed I was to be free from the generational futility that caused so many of the older fans to be so cynical and miserable.
It would not be too big of an exaggeration to say when I was younger the Red Sox were one of the greatest sources of joy in my life. I lived and breathed with this team year round. I’d impatiently wait to watch as many games as I could physically handle in the summer, live and die with them every October, and spend all winter reading about their offseason moves and up and coming prospects to know about.
I don’t think I can ever fully quit this team, that’s not the kind of fan I am and I don’t want to start so I’m not going to be one of those sanctimonious “I’m done with this team” people, Especially knowing how many fanbases have had it plenty worse than us over the years. But I have lost so much faith and trust in this organization the last 6 years, I don’t know if I can ever get back to being as excited about simply being a Red Sox fan as I used to be when I was younger. It’s got nothing to do with winning, obviously I knew all along that winning a World Series every 4 or 5 years was never going to last forever. But there has been a palpable shift in the way they do things. John Henry and FSG clearly no longer care about the people and players who made the organization and being part of its fanbase so special. So why should we care anymore either?
Since I have no plans on quitting my fandom, I guess you can consider this my resignation to having fully transitioned into one of those cynical, “expect the worst, always” kind of fans I never wanted to become. So thanks for that, FSG! You can’t sell the team soon enough. Take your ROI and get the hell out of Boston, forever.
I’ve been slightly vocal about my concerns for the Giants and how they have been run for years. This trade makes me think I wasn’t alone even though most people on here didn’t agree! It also makes me think I wasn’t wrong if Buster was willing to make this move. We desperately needed a centerpiece to this offense and a superstar to rally around and we got him. Buster also needed to have a signature move like this and he hit a grand slam. The players he gave up were expendable and we got a top 10 hitter that costs a third of what the last two top ten hotters made in free agency. Thank you Buster!!!!
frugal – I think basically almost everyone knew the Giants desperately needed a big bat in the lineup, something they haven’t had since ….. Bonds?
As much as I hate to see Raffy go, having followed him since he was a teenager in the minors, I’ve known since ST that a trade was necessary and I’m happy for both him and Giants fans.
Just please promise me y’all won’t trade him to the Yankees someday, okay?
I think this might end up being good for both teams! And good for all fans! I can’t wait to see him hit against the dodgers.
He’s not a top 10 hitter and who does he cost 1/3 of?
Soto and Ohtani? Memory loss affects all of us but come on man. Not a top 10 hitter in your opinion but most of us think he is. This is an amazing move by a guy very few thought was qualified to do the job. Is there a rookie of the year for front office staff??
Left out is the def decline is a sign of approaching hitting decline. Can’t get to balls he used to and really can’t turn DPS. They got out of an underwater, tho not disastrous, contract by being worse this year. If they miss w by 2 games, or lose a playoff in 6 or 7, can say was mistake, but this trade will look marvelous for b sox in 3-4 years.
The worst podcast you have ever done. No one ever mentions that Devers with his injury wasn’t even going to play 3rdbase earlier in the season. I don’t even know now if he can throw (not that he was very good at it anyway). There’s blame on both sides but refusing to play 1stbase for the good of the team and then being pissed at Campbell for volunteering to do it is unforgivable. I’m a Red Sox fan but good riddance to that primadonna!
If you watched the games you would notice that he wasn’t hustling. Also his body is starting to look like the Panda
..
This fanbase makes me hate the Red Sox more than I did before.