Red Sox cash in their good vibes, once again trade their present for the future with Rafael Devers deal

Boston Globe

9 hours ago

The suddenly-surging Red Sox
It's a big bowl of bad for Boston baseball. The Red Sox are once again saving money and asking their paying population to tolerate a mediocre present in hopes of a better future.
No thanks.
The illusion of contention and more talk about better days ahead is a tough sell for a once-great franchise that's finished last three times in five years and has won only one playoff series since 2018. The Giants on Sunday told their fans that they are about winning this year. The Red Sox did just the opposite.
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Devers was taken off the Sox charter flight moments before the craft took off from Logan Airport, then was seen by WCVB's Duke Castiglione when he returned to Fenway Park in a cab.
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Rafi Devers taken off ⁦
— Duke Castiglione (@DukeCastiglione)
San Francisco is assuming the whopping $237.7 million balance of
The 28-year-old Devers, a nine-year Sox veteran and three-time All-Star, evidently sealed his fate by refusing multiple team requests to return to the field after they made him a designated hitter when free agent
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Devers was openly critical of baseball operations boss Craig Breslow, after which Red Sox owner John Henry (who also owns the Globe) made the dramatic move of
You don't want to pick up a glove and help the team? Fine. We'll trade you.
Devers is a career .279 hitter and one of the most consistent sluggers in baseball the last eight seasons. He homered against the Yankees on Sunday and goes to San Francisco hitting .272, among the league leaders with 15 homers and 58 RBI.
As the Sox started playing better, winning five of six vs. the first-place Yankees and finally crawling back over .500 to get into wild card 'contention,' a logjam developed in the everyday lineup. Top prospects Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony were called up from Worcester, but have not played every day because of unexpected production from the likes of Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro. With
Who would have guessed it would be the team's best hitter?
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Neither chief baseball officer Craig Breslow nor Red Sox owner John Henry could convince Rafael Devers to give first base a shot.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Now we know that Mayer and Anthony are here to stay. The Sox have an open spot in the lineup because they just traded their All-Star designated hitter.
It would be hard to come up with a more shocking Red Sox trade in the last half century. Boston
Nomar Garciaparra was traded by Theo Epstein in the summer of 2004, but only after a lot of internal squabble and when it was clear Nomie was on the downside of a great career. That one worked out well. Theo was right.
Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees after the 1919 season. It took nine decades to recover.
There's been considerable fan backlash around Fenway in recent seasons. After Tom Werner's '
Not anymore. Once again, the Sox have traded a star, cut payroll, and done little to make this year's team better.
Six years ago, the Red Sox were defending world champs and had a young core of Betts, Xander Bogaerts, and Rafael Devers. There was a lot of debate about who to keep, and who to let go.
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They're all gone. And so are the good vibes of two weekends against the Yankees.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at