Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on throughout the day today:
1. Devers presser, Giants debut:
The stunning trade that shipped longtime Red Sox star Rafael Devers to San Francisco over the weekend has been the talk of baseball since it happened. Yesterday, Boston officials discussed the deal and what it means for the club going forward amid reactions from media and members of the organization alike. Today we figure to see the other side of the deal for the first time, as the Giants are expected to conduct an introductory press conference for Devers before the slugger makes his team debut versus the visiting Guardians in a game set for 6:45pm local time. One question that remains up in the air is where Devers will play for San Francisco in the short term. While it seems likely that he’s ticketed for work as a DH over the long-term, it’s possible he could be called upon to fill in at third base while Matt Chapman recovers from a hand sprain that’s expected to keep him out of action for quite some time.
2. Stott day-to-day:
Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott was replaced late in yesterday’s game by Edmundo Sosa, and manager Rob Thomson revealed to reporters (including Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer) that Stott hyperextended his elbow on a swing. The 27-year-old was set to get examined by team medical staff, but Thomson acknowledged his second baseman might get at least today’s game against the Marlins off. Stott dealt with a nerve injury in his elbow throughout the 2024 season, and while Thomson suggested it wasn’t clear if there’s a connection between that old issue and his current ailment, it’s certainly understandable to be cautious. Stott is in the midst of a down season at the plate, hitting just .236/.300/.329 across 66 games. Sosa figures to handle second base for any time that Stott is away from the field.
3. MLBTR Chat today:
With about six weeks to go until the July 31 trade deadline, the first big trade of the summer already happened over the weekend. While it will be difficult for another in-season blockbuster to top the Devers deal, a handful of smaller deals have started to come together around the league as well. Whether you’re looking ahead to the deadline or still trying to sort between the contenders and pretenders, MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Awaiting the inevitable situation when Devers is asked to move when Chapman is healthy.
Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s addressed in today’s presser so you shouldn’t have to wait long
I think between Bob Melvin, Buster Posey and having a guy like Randy Winn in the organization will be a better experience for Devers, because all these guys aren’t analytics only guys. Breslow played, but he’s much more of analytics guy I feel. I think Devers will do much better with the Giants.
You think devers cares if you are an analytics guy, a sports guy, or a bacon cheeseburger guy?
Ok maybe he is in on the bacon cheeseburgers
What does being an analytics guy have to do with it? Nothing, that’s what.
Hank – Analytics guys tend to be anti-social, awful at communication, don’t take into consideration non-numeric information about players, are tunnel-visioned, and treat players like commodities instead of people.
Read up on Breslow, watch The Clubhouse, Breslow has acted like a jerk at times. Not much different than Dan Duquette with the Red Sox.
Breslow is the rare nerd that actually played the game, but spend his career mostly as a LOOGY guy, which was basically an analytically created position. Breslow does seem like he has all of the personality of a wet rag and the Dan Duquette comparison may not be that far off (remember it was Duquette that ran Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, and Wil Cordero out of Boston)
Rsox – Exactly!
Duquette was Moneyball before Billy Beane, and he got crucified by the fans and media for it.
Remember he hired an analytics guy named Mike Gimbel, and he claimed to have replaced Mo Vaughn’s offense with Jose Offerman’s OBP.
Those were the days!
Don’t remind me. Mo leaves for the Angels, Bernie Williams rejects the Red Sox offer when the Yankees offer one million more dollars and the Sox give Jose Offerman a 4 year contract…
Acoss – Excellent post!
Yes Breslow is far too deep in analytics, and his communication skills suck which is typical of his type.
From all that I’ve heard the Giants are a first class organization that does things the right way. Raffy won’t be blindsided, deceived or lied to like he was with the Red Sox.
I don’t think analytics have to do with whether or not someone can handle players but as we giants fans know from the kapler/farhan era especially, personally connecting and coming from a player’s point of view makes players feel more comfortable. there are plenty of analytics guys that also connect with players but there are also those that think that analytics is the motivator INSTEAD of connecting with players or running the org in a people first way and that leads to issues
ballz – Did you see the recent Players Poll?
Kapler was 5th for managers that players wouldn’t want to play for. I know he’s heavy into analytics, but I think his political posing and mirror hugging are also factors.
I don’t think you saw how he managed. politics has nothing to do with it – players actually liked that he was supportive that way but he was a really poor communicator and didn’t really show any sort of emotion. the entire tenure in SF he confronted the umpires and was thrown out 1 time, When guys got sent up and down and swapped and such he was very robotic about it and he also wouldn’t hold team meetings and often communicated through players by telling them to talk to other players about issues. The guy is where he should be now making decisions in a front office but managing people has always been his worst skill and that is often more important than on field decisions in a manager
A1331
You think they will convince him 1stbase is his best option?. Will Devers tell Melvin and Posey he is a DH.or a 3rdbaseman? That’s what he told Cora, Breslow and John Henry in. Boston.
my understanding from looking at all of the stories and interviews is that he didn’t like getting jerked around and ownership basically belittled him. the attitude change when coming to SF that he has shown I think comes from the approach – if you heard melvin he didn’t say “this guy is playing first” he said – we are going to have him take some balls at first and when he is comfortable we are going to be getting some playing time there and eventually he can be DH and 1b” not “we are paying you this much money so you are going to do what we say”
ballz – Absolutely right!!
The Giants know how to treat players, the Red Sox absolutely do not.
Did you know Steve Cohen has several Mets star players included in group texts and even invites them to dinner at his house on a regular basis. He knows the importance of keeping his best players informed and engaged.
The big thing for Devers is he accepted a big extension from Bloom then Breslow came in. It’s not really Boston or Devers fault. And both sides came out of it in a much better situation. Sometimes a fresh start is needed and this is about as mutually beneficial of a trade that exists. I think long-term, Boston is really happy. Meanwhile Devers will help SF over the hump into relevance in the NLs version of the AL East.
Devers will move to shortstop.
It probably should have been established without having to be said out loud, but John, your team would be better if your CBO/PBO didn’t want to fire both of your teams’ 2 best hitters’ contracts into the sun. No one is going to want to play for that guy. Maybe borderline guys like Giolito are afraid of getting dumped in Colorado but free agent superstars aren’t going to want to play. Fire Craig into the sun.
The owner is the common denominator, as is the case with most dysfunctional environments, since those roles have been occupied by different execs. Launching Breslow so quick after Bloom would just make the job unappealing for a really good POBO candidate if they detect an impulsive/finger pointing owner. If they don’t ultimately reallocate the savings from Devers in a way that leads to winning in next year or 2, that’s when he is more justifiably in hot water.
It’s not about Bloom or Breslow. As much as I want the Sox to win, as a long term fan it’s probably the worst thing that could happen. As long as the Fenway faithful continue to print money for ownership, they will continue to run the club this way. Who really thought Soto was signing in Boston or Toronto? They happily bid up the price to try then to get who they targeted for less. They run the club like Henry ran his business, always looking for undervalued players and from a financial sense who can argue? Unfortunately, along the way Henry forgot or chose to ignore his community obligations (IMO). I’m not talking about the Jimmy Fund. Ownership today caters towards the tourist who has that extra buck to spend instead of the real fans that supported this team even before Henry took over.
Henry and the FSG just spent $133 million dollars on a soccer player for Liverpool. I hate to suggest that as another reason they traded Devers away, but it surely saved a good chunk of change
Mattimeo09: The money spent on the Sox and the money spent on Liverpool are two different things. I’m a Red Sox fan but Liverpool is my team since I’m also a White Sox fan (I gotta have something to cheer about). I’m glad that FSG spent a bundle on Wirtz, Frimpong and, hopefully, Kerkez. It’s a different situation to stay competitive in European soccer than it is in baseball
Matt, like I posted previously on other threads, if they don’t re-invest the Devers’ money, there will be hell from the fans. The same fans who basically forced ownership to then overpay for Devers in the first place.
Avenger – you’re crazy to think that spending in one part of a company has absolutely nothing to do with the spending in other parts.
They can lie to you and tell you that they’re separate, but at the end of the day, if there’s a move they needed to make and they needed funds from another part of the business, they’re going to go get those funds.
If one side of the business is tanking (financially, so unlike the Red Sox for the past few years, they still churn out a profit), and need additional capital to get out of it, they will take from other parts of the business.
That’s just how things work in the real world.
And those same fans will not be happy with whoever the Sox spend the money on. It’s a vicious cycle
cws – Cora is just as much a common denominator.
He took a 108-win WS Champion team and horribly mismanaged it the following year, missing the postseason entirely.
Then from 2022-2024 his teams crashed in the second half as he lost the clubhouse, and none of them finished the season with a winning record. This despite the fact it was a different group of players each year.
I agree Boston’s problems start at the top though, John Henry runs the Red Sox like he ran his business as a commodities trader. He’s a typically arrogant billionaire who doesn’t care about winning as long as profits are sufficient. He’s got his 8 rings, now he’s focused on his other ventures including Fenway Corners.’
It’s so important to have an owner who wants to win …. Red Sox haven’t had that since Larry left and Dave resigned.
Cora should be thrown out of baseball, and not because of his poor managing
There are Pirates “fans” who believe the team could have added Rafael Devers $30 million per year salary to their payroll – even after the team LOST money in 2024 and ranked 26th in total revenue in 2023.
Delusional.
If they invested in their team they would pull in more revenue. You kind of need a good product to pull in ticket sales. Also, revenue sharing exists. Dont fall for the billionaire “boo hoo we cant afford anything!” spiel they want you to believe lol
With Revenue Sharing included, the Pirates were 26th in total revenues in 2023.
In 2015, the Pirates went to the postseason for the third straight year and won 98 games, the second-most in MLB. Their attendance was Ninth in the Fifteen team NL – less than even the Brewers who had a 68-94 record and play in a smaller market than Pittsburgh.
The following year, the Pirates raised their payroll to it’s highest ever – and attendance DECREASED by 250,000.
Pittsbugh is a bad market for baseball, even when the team has been one of the very best in the major leagues.
In the 1992, they won their division for the third year in a row and could not sell out the National League Championship Series.
In 1979, they won the World Series and were Tenth of Twelve NL teams in attendance.
Thinking that the Pirates could add Devers’ salary to their payroll is delusional.
Anyways, you need to invest in your product if you want to see an increase in attendance. No ones going to games because the team sucks and no ones buying jerseys because anytime they get anyone good theyre traded away. That directly effects revenue believe it or not.
If you want to pretend that Pittsburgh cant draw a crowd then go look at Steelers average attendance numbers. Hell, even the Pengs pull the same numbers as the Pirates despite Hockey having a way less following in the USA than baseball and despite them playing in smaller venues.
“If you build it, they will come”
Speaking of the Penguins, FSG owned them for a bit, to the detriment of both the Penguins and the Red Sox
As I wrote above, the Pirates INCREASED payroll in 2016, after reaching the postseason for three straight seasons, and attendance DECREASED by 250,000.
Pittsburgh is now, and always has been, a Bad Market for Baseball.
Richard,
You can keep ignoring attendance dropped off because they were a sub .500 team in 2016. They also decreased payroll from 100MM in 2015 to 80MM in 2016. They raised it again in 2017 back to 100MM then back down again to 80MM in 2018. This is all on Baseball Reference. Regardless, even at their highest payroll they were still bottom 3rd in the league regarding payroll. Thats not good lol
Fact: they had their best attendance numbers in 2015 when they spent the most money in franchise history.
They averaged 30k per game in 2014 and 2015. Theyre averaging 16k per game over the last 5 years (including this season). Its almost like… putting a good product on the field doubles their attendance numbers, shocking!
Being a bottom ranked spender leads to being a bad team which leads to bad attendance, youre gonna have to accept that. Dont blame the market for the owners unwillingness to invest in the team and dont pretend a one year historical high of 100MM in player salary is actually investing in a the team. Unless you’re on the Pirates’ payroll to defend their lack of spending online you should give it a rest.
In 2015, the Pirates payroll was $90,053,000
In 2016, it increased to $99,945,500 – and attendance Decreased by 250,000
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/na…
Pittsburgh is an historically bad market for baseball.
*Anyway
Richard
Thats opening day payroll. The est payroll numbers are on Baseball Reference. Stevetheump.com has Pirates 2016 opening day Payroll at 85MM too, ranking 25th out of 30 teams.
And again, attendance decreased because they were a sub .500 team. They traded away Mark Melancon, Francisco Liriano and Ivan Nova at the 2016 deadline too. Regardless what payroll numbers you want to believe, 100MM is still a bottom third of the league payroll and not really investing in your team. Stop pretending that it is.
Its not a bad market. They simply dont invest in the product so no one wants the product. Stop lying to yourself that theres nothing Pirates ownership can do.
+Manfred
**Anywaysies’s
None of these teams are losing money.
Begamin: These billionaire owners can afford any player they want. They just don’t. They want to keep their money so they can stay billionaires. Love him or hate him, at least Cohen spends to try to better his team.
I dont really have an opinion on Cohen but he understands you have to invest in a team if you want to see it improve. So far they went from 28k average attendance to 38k after signing Soto
After making the NLCS, then signing Soto
dkpittsburghsports.com/team/site-stuff/feed?page=0…
Maybe on ‘paper’ teams seem to lose money. But the value of the franchise has skyrocketed. Look and understand what he paid for the team as opposed to what he could sell it for now. Owners of professional teams are not losing $$$$$.
We don’t know the value of the team until somebody pays that amount for it. Also, the owner doesn’t make any money on the value of the team until he sells it. And nobody wants to buy the Pirates and keep them in the historically bad Pittsburgh baseball market.
Devers? Pirates? There’s something I can’t envision. Who would Devers drive in? He’d finish with 20 HR and 22 RBI.
They always have an opening at 1b.
Raffy fits perfectly!!!
😂
He would have fit in very nicely with the Blue Jays a team that is already run by the players
How long before Devers blasts Sox to media in SF.
3 . . 2 . .1 . .
As he should. From a diehard Sox fan,this ownership and front office are trash and a joke around the league. Devers, with his contract could have handled things better, but this is on the higher ups not communicating, and trading your best and only great player is never excusable. Embarrassing.
“handle things better”
Bosses sometimes ask a workers to do different jobs sometimes. A worker may refuse. A boss may have another different job. And the worker may refuse again. That worker probably won’t be around much longer.
The real world and the baseball world arent as different as you think. Just a lot more entitlement.
Nah, BS.
The Red Sox management absolutely knew who Raffy Devers was when they gave him $300 million to hit baseballs. He literally serves no other purpose. Just hit.
This is all on the Red Sox.
And in business, when bosses push out quality employees with unreasonable demands, the customer’s experience suffers, and if it continues long enough the business will flounder. If you want to find real entitlement, look to the guys in the suits, not the ones in uniforms.
“This is all on the Red Sox”
Blame whoever you want, whatever helps you sleep at night.
Its an employer/employee relationship. One side has far more power. Devers inability to understand that relationship got his ash shipped out of town. I hope thats what he wanted.
I’m more interested in Devers’ persona. He’ll be the team player, the good guy, the happy-go-lucky soul for six weeks. Maybe even the rest of the season. But even Barrymore couldn’t put on an act 24/7. By next season, Giants fans will see the real Raffy. Self-centered, sulky and a clubhouse poison.
Not too impressed with Ohtani’s 1 inning of work. 2 hits, a run, a 0.400 BABIP and no Ks? Guy looked cooked. Time to DFA him so the Tigers or Cubs can try to salvage him…
/s
Old York: How about Skenes to the Tigers since no one is going to pry Ohtani out of LA. But it is interesting to think about an Ohtani trade. Where and for who?
@avenger65
I don’t know. Just having a bit of fun. I agree, it’s time to free Skenes. If the Pirates ownership isn’t going to build around him then they should be sending him to a team that wants to win. Would be fun to see Skenes on the Tigers. That would be a seriously tough team to face in the playoffs, especially the short best of 5 series.
So many comments with almost no mention of how much this improves the odds that SF can go deep into the playoffs this year. Long term salary questions aside, this is an excellent pick up by the Giants.
I’m not going to comment on the Boston drama. I have no real opinion on who should be roasted in the Boston media.
@CardsFan57
I’m only having fun with small sample sizes but he doesn’t look great in SF…
Slashline: .083 / .154 / .167
wRC+: -53
Finally. Yes.
Stunned at first, but maybe I get it. Devers has negative value now. A dh1b guy now w a complaining/not team rep would not get close to his contract on the open market now. That money can be much better spent next December (Tucker?). Worth it to pay the short term price bc the real competitive window is really 26/27… when the young guys are up.
SF has plenty of money. There’s no reason they can’t sign Tucker too.
Adames
Chapman
Devers
Hoo Lee
Ray & Webb.
How many long term deals should they commit to?
Saj
DH/1b guy? He refused to give 1b a shot to the owner of the team. The guy that signed his $311+ million checks. If he is playing 1b against the Sox this weekend , it will be a real kick in the dick. IMO if he had picked up a 1stbaseman ‘s glove he would still be on the Sox. Blame is on all sides here but Devers not wanting to give 1st at least an attempt is quite damning. I think it sucks he is no longer a redsox . Circumstances had changed , needs change. and he was unwilling to adapt. That blows !
All I’ll say is the Giants playoff chances have just skyrocketed!!
And its going To be an awkward conversation when Matt Chapman gets healthy
How? Matt Chapman is obviously a way better fielder and will not be coming off of third base to accommodate Devers.
I expect no issue. Devers knows that Chapman is the 3B when he returns, and would probably appreciate SF’s vote of confidence by starting him there for a couple of weeks.
Just saying I live in New England and he’s been b****ing ever since the Red Sox considered moving him off 3rd Base
Obviously he hated it here and would prefer to go elsewhere
The conversation is today about establishing expectations. Mutual 2-3 way dialog.
FGs has their odds @ 64.7% to make the playoffs, they were at 62.5% last week.
Was Stott replaced last night? MLB.com and baseball-reference don’t show Sosa coming into the game?
What moves do everyone seeing the Detroit Tigers make at the trade deadline?
Bregman.
Oof