Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox have already moved on from three pieces acquired as part of last June’s trade with the Giants.
The Red Sox return in the Rafael Devers trade left a lot to be desired. Barry Chen/The Boston Globe
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By the time the Red Sox made the call to trade Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants last June, it looked as if the bridge between the team and the disgruntled player had been reduced to ash.
But even if the Red Sox feel as though the long-term relationship with Devers has broken down, shipping a bat like his would only be a palatable option if they get major assets in return from the Giants.
So far, that hasn’t been the case for a Red Sox team that is not only missing Devers’ bat at the heart of their system, but has largely wasted the running back from San Francisco in the process.
Boston has already felt the lineup pain through the first nine games of the 2026 season, with the batting order moving forward without both Devers and Alex Bregman offering much protection to pressure Roman Anthony out of the leadoff spot.
Certainly the message broadcast from Craig Breslow and Boston’s top brass heading into the new baseball season was that the concessions made by taking Devers’ bat out of the lineup would be offset by the financial flexibility available to shore up other areas of the roster.
“I don’t know that you’re looking to replace one for one – you know, produce a guy like Ravi, a guy like Alex, but our goal, you know, as a team, is to win more games,” Breslow said in February. “I think there are a lot of different ways we can do that, and leaning toward shooting and defending is certainly one of them.”
The Red Sox have certainly been leaning toward pitching and defense this season. But Boston has yet to see this pivot to fruition.
After Sunday’s 8-6 loss to the Padres, Boston is 2-7 on the season, having lost each of its first three series to Cincinnati, Houston and San Diego.
Boston used some of the money freed up by San Francisco to acquire the remaining $254 million remaining in Devers’ deal to sign southpaw Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130 million contract.
Boston has dropped both of Suarez’s starts so far this season, with the lefty 0-1 with an 8.64 ERA. In his four innings of work Sunday against the Padres, Suarez gave up six hits, four runs and two walks across 75 pitches.
The Red Sox defense wasn’t much better, as Boston had two more errors on Sunday. After committing an MLB-worst 116 errors last season, the Red Sox had nine errors in their first nine games.
Right now, things look bleak at Fenway Park for a team that appears poised to take a step forward after its brief playoff appearance last year.
“This is unacceptable. This is unacceptable for the fans,” Anthony said after the match. “It is unacceptable by the standards we set for ourselves.”
Boston’s disappointing start to the new season will at least somewhat subside if the other pieces the Red Sox have snatched from the Giants produce promising returns.
Some of them are – but for other teams.
Besides convincing the Giants to take over Devers’ contract, Boston also received right-handed pitcher Jordan Hicks, southpaw Kyle Harrison, and a pair of prospects in first baseman James Thibbs and right-hander Jose Bello from San Francisco.
Less than a year later, only Bellew, 20, remained in Boston’s organization.
Hicks was an outright disaster last season with the Red Sox. The hard-throwing right-hander stood out with an 8.20 ERA across 21 appearances and just 18.2 innings before being suspended for the year.
Boston traded Hicks to the White Sox in February, with the Red Sox needing to land David Sandlin — the club’s No. 8 prospect at the time by MLB Pipeline — in order to get the majority of Hicks’ remaining $24 million contract off the books.
Harrison, a 24-year-old who had varying stints with San Francisco, spent the majority of the 2025 season with Triple-A Worcester after Boston fired him from the West Coast. He eventually appeared in three games (two starts) with Boston last season, pitching to a 3.00 ERA and striking out 13 over 12 innings of work.
Given Boston’s supposed roster abundance, the Red Sox decided to trade Harrison as part of a package deal with the Brewers in February, with Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio returning to Boston.
While Durbin has so far worked with Boston (.071 average, 1 RBI), Harrison appears to have already meshed with Milwaukee’s strong pipeline — pitching to a 2.61 ERA and striking out 14 over 10.1 innings in his first two outings with the Brewers in 2026.
Tibbs — the No. 4 pick in San Francisco at the time of the Devers trade — didn’t last even two months in Boston.
After just 30 games played with Double-A Portland, the Red Sox traded Tibbs to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a package for starting pitcher Dustin May on July 31.
May didn’t move the needle down the stretch in Boston. In six games (five starts) with the Red Sox, Maye had a 5.40 ERA, giving up 35 hits and 13 walks in just 28.1 innings of work. He signed with the Cardinals in free agency last winter.
Meanwhile, Thibbs looks like a future star in the Dodgers farm system.
Currently playing for the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, the 23-year-old Tibbs is batting .514 with seven home runs, four doubles, one triple, and 13 RBI in just eight games.
The Red Sox already have a first baseman in Willson Contreras and a slew of outfielders on their MLB roster.
But, it would be a big problem for a lagging Red Sox offense to have a prospect like Tibbs pitching in Triple-A — rather than giving the defending World Series champions another top-tier prospect.
And with Maye failing miserably in Boston after just five starts, dealing Thibs for rent represents brutal asset management from the Red Sox.
The 2026 Red Sox still have plenty of time to dig themselves out of this early-season slump. Admittedly, Devers has yet to compete in 2026 with the Giants (.211 batting average, one home run, two RBI).
But, just as the ill-fated Mookie Betts trade has loomed in Boston for years now, the Red Sox’ decision to trade Devers seemed like another whiff of wind for a franchise that has been burned by several franchise-altering departures in recent years.
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