The Boston Red Sox shocked the baseball world on Sunday night when news hit that they had agreed to trade franchise slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants shortly after completing a sweep of the rival New York Yankees.
The move came weeks after Devers had voiced some displeasure with the Red Sox front office. In spring training, the team informed him that he’d be vacating his long-held position at third base to make room for free agent Alex Bregman. Then, when Triston Casas went down with a season-ending knee injury, the Red Sox asked Devers to try first base. That seemed to bring things to a head, as Devers publicly criticized the team and refused to change positions.
Now, the slugger will be left to find a better fit with the Giants. But just hours before he was informed that he’d be on the move, he had indicated that the drama between himself and the team was no longer an issue.
“That’s in the past,” Devers said, when asked about the recent drama after the Red Sox win, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic.
Shortly afterward, the team boarded a flight headed for Seattle while Devers got into an Uber as the first step in his move to the Giants.
In retrospect, the peak of Devers’ off-field issues with the team came when team owner John Henry made a surprise trip to Kansas City to meet with him, following his public criticism of the front office. After that meeting, it seemed as though the tensions were indeed left in the past, and Devers had little to say to reporters.
“In the month since that meeting, Devers had made himself scarce,” McCaffrey added. “He’d spoken to the media just once from then until taking the podium on Sunday, when he insisted that tensions were in the past. Apparently, from the Red Sox’s perspective, that wasn’t the case.”
Perhaps Devers was aware a trade was in the works. Or perhaps he was genuinely trying to move on with the franchise that had committed $313 million to him just two years ago.
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