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The Boston Red Sox shook the baseball world on Sunday when they traded franchise cornerstone Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, seemingly out of the blue.
Davvid Ortiz, Hall of Famer, fan favorite, and three-time World Series champion with Boston, shed some light on the shocking move.
“No one is indispensable on a team,” he said in Spanish in a video shared by Yancen Pujols. “The only way to become indispensable is by doing things the right way, all the way around. You need to be available. I think that marked the end of the relationship between the Red Sox and Devers. You have to be smart. A player’s worst enemy is his ego. And guess what teams do with your ego? They buy it.”
Ortiz is referring to Devers' well-publicized refusal to give up his third base job to new signee Alex Bregman, a better defensive player. Though Bregman helped cool tensions between Devers and the club, they ignited again when first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury and the Red Sox asked Devers to move to first.
Though Devers wasn't thrilled with the Boston brass, he did not request a trade, according to Chris Cortillo of MassLive.com.
Red Sox Rafael Devers trade shocks baseball executives
It wasn't just the fans who were taken by surprise with the Devers deal. Not even baseball executives saw it coming.
“Is this trade real?” one American League executive asked Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. “Whoa!”
Another exec had a more measured reaction, seeing the positives in the deal for both the Red Sox and Giants.
“I think it gives Boston the opportunity to reset and repurpose a lot of money,” another said. “For the Giants, it provides them with the big bat they have struggled to draft, develop or acquire without giving up huge amounts of prospect capital.”
And another said what everyone was thinking: the Devers-Red Sox feud was the beginning of the end, and neither side handled it as well as they could have.
“On the surface, it feels like a relationship gone bad that was mismanaged from the beginning,” the exec said. “This is probably a welcome outcome.”
The bonus for baseball fans is that Devers will face his old team in less than a week. The Red Sox begin a three-game series in San Francisco on Friday.
