The Devers Difference
June 2025: Craig Breslow and Buster Posey make a deal that shook the MLB world harder than the 1989 earthquake shook Candlestick, sending Rafael Devers to the Giants for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs, and Jose Bello. This now-infamous trade is a lot to unpack and will forever change the relationship between franchise players and front offices.
What Led to This?
This offseason, something was building between Devers and the Red Sox, starting with his defensive struggles and talk of him moving into a permanent DH role. The Red Sox forced their hand with the signing of Alex Bregman as his replacement. Devers was openly against the move, as he felt disrespected. As the franchise player, Devers wanted the Red Sox to build around him, not expect him to change for the Red Sox. This was an understandable way for Devers to think, as the Red Sox chose to re-sign him to a long-term deal over former NL MVP Mookie Betts. Tension only grew after the Red Sox requested Devers to make the switch to first base after Tristan Casas' early-season-ending injury. Devers was also rightfully bothered when leaks from the Red Sox locker room revealed that Kristen Kampbell had talked to Alex Cora about playing first behind Devers' back. This made Devers even more undercut and slighted by his team.
Everything blew up on Father's Day, three hours after Devers hit his 15th HR of the season to lead the Red Sox in sweeping the Yankees. Timing is everything in baseball, and this trade couldn’t have been timed worse or better, depending upon how you look at it. The Giants are coming off a quality road trip, where they broke their 19-game streak with 4 or fewer runs and saw the slight revival of Willy Adames’s bat. The Giants got their guy and showed the league that they’re done waiting for the perfect time.
Devers is the purest power hitter the Giants have had since Barry Bonds, and adding his bat to a team with the best pitching staff in the league solidified their contention for the playoffs. The Red Sox did quite the opposite. Despite coming off a sweep of the Yankees, they didn’t land any players in this deal who are ready to immediately improve their starting lineup or their underperforming pitching staff. Jordan Hicks has continued to struggle as a starter, being inconsistent throughout his starting pitching experiment. However, to the Red Sox's benefit, the potential of Harrison and Tibbs has been overlooked in reviews of this trade. Lost in the analysis has been how great a year Kyle Harrison is having, sporting a sub-three ERA if you disregard one bad start against the Padres. It may be easy to forget, but Harrison was one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball just a few years ago. James Tibbs III, coming out of Florida State, remains a top hitting prospect with super high upside. In fact, Tibbs won the ACC player of the year award and led Florida State to their 23rd appearance in Omaha. Tibb’s combination of power and plate discipline is rare to come by, and he will very likely prove to be a mainstay in the majors.
What Precedent Does This Trade Set?
Since free agency was introduced in 1976, it has been incredibly rare that a star is traded with more than 2–3 years remaining on their contract. The likes of Nolan Arenado and Ken Griffey Jr. have been some of the few in history that shook the baseball world by being dealt with major years left on their deals. Moves like this were seen as once-in-a-lifetime, but this Devers trade may change that forever. This deal is likely going to drastically alter the status quo, specifically on when trade talks begin and how untouchable “franchise players” really are going forward. This trade has set the precedent that nobody is untouchable, and franchise players who are unhappy with their front office might start looking for a way out earlier. If a trade similar to this were made in the 2000s, someone like Mike Trout might’ve found his way out of the hellfire that is the Angels organization.
The CBA negotiations are coming up. After this season, we’ll most likely see more and more stars taking full no-trade clauses and arguing for a salary cap floor to help out lower-level free agents. This likely evolution of the free agency process and salary cap structure will flip the current free agency environment on its head. Gone will be the days when players are either offered a blank check or high-risk prove-it deals.
A salary cap would create a more level playing field between big and small market teams, but there’s a reason why the MLB has taken so long to agree to a salary cap. A hard cap will go a long way in killing the modern mega contracts for future stars and could significantly penalize organizations that are currently paying players what they deserve. Salary caps work for leagues like the NBA because they only have 15 active players on a roster at any given time.
The MLB players' association has circumvented a salary cap by trading six years of service time before becoming a free agent for higher rookie and minimum contracts. Since free agency is so hard to get in the MLB, raising the minimum is essential to make sure young players are compensated for their efforts just to make the majors, let alone stay in them.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Buster Posey has changed the culture in the Giants’ front office. Finally making moves like a big market team and getting the best players to fill spots instead of trying to find obscure platoon bats that never seem to last longer than 3 months. Giants fans are more optimistic than in the early 2010s because this team is simply better. People kept asking what and when Buster was going to make a move, but no Giants fan could’ve dreamed of a better scenario.
