The San Francisco Giants are buying All-Star DH/infielder Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox, the groups confirmed late Sunday. The Pink Sox will obtain right-hander Jordan Hicks, left-hander Kyle Harrison, outfield/infield prospect James Tibbs, and minor-league right-hander Jose Bello within the deal.
Devers, 28, is batting .272/.401/.504 with 15 dwelling runs in 73 video games for Boston this season. He is within the second 12 months of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract that can run via the 2033 season. The Giants will probably be selecting up your complete remaining monetary obligation. That contract extension didn’t embody a no-trade clause, and Devers had but to qualify for 10-and-5 rights, which implies he had no capability to dam the commerce.
A extremely productive hitter for a lot of his profession, Devers throughout components of 9 MLB seasons has an OPS+ of 128 with 214 dwelling runs and a WAR of 24.8. He is a three-time All-Star, and he received a Silver Slugger award in 2021.
Rafael Devers trade: Winners and losers, including the present-day Giants, the future Red Sox and Gerrit Cole
Mike Axisa
On the Pink Sox’s aspect, Hicks is a giant arm who has been a satisfactory and occasional presence within the rotation since he signed with the Giants. He is 28 and signed via 2027. The 23-year-old Harrison owns an ERA+ of 88 throughout 35 MLB begins and 4 reduction appearances over three seasons. He figures to affix the Boston rotation. Tibbs was the No. 13 total decide in final 12 months’s draft out of Florida State. He has a slash line of .244/.351/.433 in 82 minor-league video games. Bello, 20, has pitched to a 2.97 ERA and 5.83 Okay/BB ratio in 15 begins and 10 reduction appearances. He is pitched in rookie ball this season. Along with shedding the rest of Devers’ wage commitments and including the above skills, the Pink Sox additionally clear some theoretical house for all of the younger hitters who’ve trickled into Boston this season.
The backstory to what at first blush looks like a surprising commerce on the Pink Sox’s aspect is the controversy surrounding Devers’ defensive assignments this season. Main as much as and after Boston’s free-agent signing of Alex Bregman this previous winter, Devers balked on the thought of transferring off third base, the place he had manned for his total profession up till that time. Finally, although, Devers relented and agreed to change into the Pink Sox’s full-time DH.
Then, nevertheless, the saga took one other flip when Boston first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee damage in early Could. Quickly after the lack of Casas, the supervisor Alex Cora downplayed the concept of transferring Devers to first base. Devers, although, mentioned membership chief baseball officer Craig Breslow did certainly strategy him about selecting up a glove once more.
“I am not sure what (concern) he has with me,” Devers mentioned via an interpreter of Breslow, according to the Boston Globe. “He performed ball, and I wish to assume that he is aware of that altering positions like that is not simple. I do know I am a ballplayer, however on the identical time, they can not anticipate me to play each single place on the market. In (spring) coaching, they talked to me and mainly advised me to place away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play some other place however DH. Proper now, I simply really feel prefer it’s not an applicable determination by them to ask me to play one other place.”
It took a one-on-one meeting with Red Sox owner John Henry to place out the flames, however by that time mutual disaffection might have set in. That mutual disaffection prompted Sunday’s shocker of a commerce. As the Globe’s Peter Abraham reported: “The workforce’s feeling was {that a} $313.5M contract comes with duties to do what is true for the workforce and that Devers didn’t reside as much as these duties. They’d sufficient they usually traded him.”
Rafael Devers trade grades: Giants get ‘B’ for big swing, Red Sox escape drama partially of their own making
R.J. Anderson
Devers certainly remained within the DH position and, after a sluggish begin to 2025, started placing collectively what to this point has been probably the most productive campaigns of his profession. Now it is the second-place Giants who will profit from his high-level manufacturing as they try and fend off the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks within the hotly aggressive Nationwide League West. The Pink Sox, meantime, could also be positioned to retool, even coming off a sweep of the rival New York Yankees. Boston stands at 37-36 and in fourth place within the AL East.
With the Giants, Devers may instantly slide into the DH position or maybe transition to first base. Regardless of the specifics, he’ll give the Giants a much-needed injection of energy and on-base abilities. Whereas the Giants are very a lot in rivalry, they’re successful regardless of an offense that ranks fifteenth in MLB in runs scored and twenty third in OPS. Devers and his star-caliber bat deal with these deficiencies in a significant manner, each now and for years to return.
In a compelling coincidence, Devers and the Giants will host the Pink Sox for a three-game interleague sequence that begins on Friday.