How to Ruin an MLB Team 101: The Rafael Devers Trade, One Year Later
- Om Brown
- 10 minutes ago
- 15 min read
The Boston Red Sox will not win with their current leadership.
The future on the field looks promising in some areas. Up in the suites, I would argue it doesn’t. I believe the Red Sox won’t win another ring for a while. It is all because of the man running the show. Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow doesn’t have what it takes to be the guy to make moves to put them over the hump.
Now, I have been on record bashing Breslow’s moves and I have let it be known that I hate the fact that he is running my favorite baseball team. However, I have also been right to criticize him. I wrote this in August of 2025 after the trade deadline:
However, Boston must outlast teams like the Yankees, Rangers, Blue Jays and Mariners, teams that all made bigger moves than them. Will the passiveness of Breslow and his brass pay off, or will another weak trade deadline handicap the ceiling of this roster and bring their season to a disappointing end?
- Om Brown, Recapping July 2025 and the Trade Deadline
And guess what? Teams like the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Yankees all made significant improvements at the deadline and advanced further than Boston. The team limped into the postseason and just couldn’t compete with New York, who was supplemented by additions at the deadline. 2025 was the second trade deadline in a row that Breslow didn’t add any impact pieces to the ballclub, and saw it fizzle out in the big moments. I’ll get to that later, but first I need to address Breslow himself.
Note: All stats in this piece are as of 12pm on June 14th.
My Problem with Breslow:
Let's play a little would-you-rather game.
Player 1 has a career adjusted postseason statline for 120 game pace that looks like this: .303 AVG, 37 home runs, and 127 RBI, with an OBP of .382 and OPS of .955. In a career adjusted 162 game pace vs. AL East opponents, he has hit .277 to go with 32 HR, 103 batted in, an OBP of .345 and OPS at .840.
Player 2’s adjusted stats look like this: .239 AVG, 22 homers, and 65 ribbies to go with an OBP of .349 and OPS of just .791. Player 2’s 162 game pace vs. the AL East is this: .271 AVG, 32 bombs, 89 RBI, an OBP of .364, and an OPS mark of .858.
Overall against the Red Sox rivals, both players are great in the batters box, which is a good thing. However, one player is clearly worse in the playoffs with an adjusted pace. Player 1 is Rafael Devers, while Player 2 is Alex Bregman. Yes, Bregman has played in 102 playoff games to Devers’ 26, I am well aware of that. I wouldn’t expect Raffy to have the numbers that math will tell you he’d have, but there is no denying that Alex Bregman’s bat wilts when the lights are the brightest, while Devers handles his business in the spotlight.
For the people that want me to compare both players’ stats on an equal level with no nerdy math equations for an adjusted pace, I will present to you Devers’ career in the postseason vs. Bregman’s World Series numbers. Both have played 26 games in these categories. Raffy has hit .303 with 8 dingers and 26 RBI in those 26 contests, while Breggy hits under the Mendoza Line (AVG below .200), at a paltry .198 AVG with 6 round-trippers and 19 RBI.
Devers is by far a better hitter in the postseason. The facts and statistics say that. Bregman was brought in this past offseason, hailed as a leader and postseason hero, but I frankly believe that leadership will only get you so far. Bregman doesn’t perform in the playoffs, and at some point, production must be valued over leadership, which is something that Breslow and his brass failed to understand.
Another thing with Devers that fans seem to think is that he was a diva, a locker room cancer, and a bad teammate, which could be deemed as true after his refusal to play first base, but it isn’t. When you actually do the research, his former teammates have nothing but good things to say about him.
Kristian Campbell was asked about a report about the first base drama of KC allegedly asking the Red Sox to start so he can learn the position, and with that, Devers took offense to it, as a “slight to his own stature.” Campbell had this to say:
“Yeah, that was false. First off, Raffy never came to me. Never had a problem with it. We were always cool. He is an extremely great friend, extremely great person. Very kind person and a good teammate.”
- Kristian Campbell via Ryan Dunleavy, Kristian Campbell clears the air on alleged beef with Rafael Devers
Former Giants OF and grandson of Red Sox legend Carl Yastremski, Mike, was a teammate of Rafael Devers for around 6 weeks before he was dealt to the Royals, had a similar message as KC. Take a listen:
2018 World Series champ, and 2021 All-Star, Matt Barnes spoke to on the Foul Territory podcast and had this to say about Raffy:
“Devers is an unbelievable player, and as long as I was with him (2017-2022) he was an unbelievable person. He played the game like he was in little league, which for me is a rare thing for me to see at a level that is so competitive.”
- Matt Barnes via the Foul Territory Podcast, Matt Barnes on Foul Territory (skip to 4:45 for Devers discourse)
One of the greatest pitchers of all time, Pedro Martinez was vocal about how Devers is a winning teammate as well.
It is very hard for me to see the argument that the Red Sox were a better team without Devers as well. The offense was very streaky without him, and struggled to hit good pitching, like we saw in the Yankees series. Before the trade, the home-runs-per-game mark for Boston was 1.22, and it dropped to 1.09 after the trade. From the time of the trade to the end of the season, the Sox ranked 23rd in the league in longballs hit. That is not a recipe for a winning team. You cannot expect to subtract a player with the 13th highest OPS since 2021 (.868) and act like the team is better off. The biggest reason for the Red Sox being “better” without Devers was Bello and Giolito figuring out how to pitch. Bello had a 3.72 ERA before the trade and posted a 3.42 ERA after, but that mark is drastically inflated by a disastrous September. Giolito was at a 5.31 ERA prior to the deal, and had a 3.15 ERA the rest of the way, which is a huge improvement. Both of those guys pitching up to their standard gave the offense more breathing room to not have to be as good without Devers. The pitching led to more wins, not the offense. From a pure baseball standpoint, the Red Sox were foolish to trade away another superstar.
I believe Breslow made this move because he has a fragile ego, and Devers taking offense to his bad communication skills was a shot at that. We have seen time and time again that Breslow lacks the ability to connect with others.
ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that many others in the front office find Breslow’s presence, “wooden and ineffective,” while offering the below advice:
"...he has to talk more with others, connect more — because when he doesn't build those relationships, what festers in the vacuum of conversation is the sort of communication decline that developed with Devers."
-Buster Olney, After Devers debacle, Red Sox must right the ship.
To me, this is horrible. Breslow is the face of the team. He runs their day-to-day management. He drafts, signs, releases, promotes and trades players. The fact that people in his own front office find that he is wooden and ineffective, as well as being a poor relationship builder, spells only bad news for Boston.
More reports on Breslow being tough to talk to came out after the trade deadline, this time from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.
“Teams hate dealing with the Red Sox. I guess it’s just very tough to do with Breslow. When you talk to GMs around the game, they said it’s very tough to deal with the Red Sox and Craig Breslow in particular.”
- Bob Nightengale via Foul Territory, Big Craig Breslow Problem
This isn’t a report about Red Sox officials bashing his communication skills. This is a quote from another respected baseball insider who has spoken to other people who are in Breslow’s role across the league. The man who runs the baseball squad in Boston is literally viewed as hard to work with by his peers in other organizations. That is horrible. No wonder Breslow has failed to do anything at both of his trade deadlines as GM. Not only can he not communicate with his players, he can’t even effectively talk to other GM’s to make deals. The lack of urgency at the 2025 trade deadline by Breslow and his crew didn’t derail the Red Sox season, but it certainly didn’t help them right the ship offensively down the stretch.
Relating this back to the trade of Devers, I see a very clear picture on what happened. Let me break it down step-by-step.
1. There was little to no communication with Raffy on signing Bregman.
It isn’t a necessity for the team to talk to its best player when looking to acquire another All-Star that plays the same position, but don’t you think that most teams across the MLB would effectively communicate this?
2. When Devers was frustrated, Breslow realized his failed communication.
When Spring Training rolled around, Devers let the world know his thoughts. At this point, Breslow likely saw that he and his management screwed up, but since he is basically a robot when it comes to speaking with people, the situation couldn’t be rectified later on.
3. Breslow’s ego was damaged, and he got owner John Henry’s approval to trade.
Henry did fly out to Kansas City to meet with Devers in early May, but the Sox owner has not endeared himself to the fans since the trade of Mookie Betts. While Henry does own a place in Nantucket, he primarily lives down in Boca Raton, FL, and most of his sports interests lie in his ownership of Liverpool, the soccer club. He has refused to spend money like a Boston sports team should since 2020, and when Breslow likely approached him about a trade of their superstar, my guess is that Henry didn’t care, as long as the Giants ate the remaining 8-years and $250 million on Raffy’s deal.
Another thing that many people overlook is that when he was hired, Breslow was not a top choice for the organization. In fact, some of their preferred hires, most notably Sam Fuld (Phillies), Brendan Gomes (Dodgers), and Jon Daniels (formerly Rangers), declined interviews in 2023 after Bloom was fired. It is a small thing, but I can’t help but wonder why these highly regarded executives chose to stay with their teams in lesser roles. Since this happened, Boston had to pivot and find someone at the bottom of their list, which ended up unfortunately being Breslow.
His commuication skills were further shown to be awful with the messy breakup between Breslow and longtime manager and fan favorite, Alex Cora. I already covered the parting of ways, but I will add some additional thoughts. The move was an obvious save face for BresBot to keep his job for the rest of the year. Cora is a respected figure among the baseball commuinty, a champion manager, known for his relationships around the game and with players, while Breslow is known for his poor communcation skills, his odd algoritmic view of the game and his inability to keep big names in Boston. They are about as oppositite as it can get, and to me it was clear that ownership would only keep one of them on board post-2026, so Breslow had to buy himself some time.
Breslow’s Rocky Trade History:
Former GM Chiam Bloom gets a lot of heat over his return in the Mookie Betts trade, but Breslow’s trade history hasn’t been great to say the least. Yes, he has had a home run trade or two, but he has made some deals that have hurt the team in big ways. He doesn't get enough criticsm for his trades that have blown up in his face.
Note: This will not include 2025-2026 offseason trades as it is too early to tell with those moves.
No-Doubt Wins:
Red Sox trade: 4 prospects (C Kyle Teel, OF Braden Montogomery, RHP Wikelman Gonzalez and INF Chase Meidroth)
White Sox trade: LHP Garrett Crochet
I won’t argue this one. Breslow did a great job bringing in an ace. I’ll tip my cap to him here.
Sort-Of Wins:
Red Sox trade: 1 prospect (RHP Elmer Cruz-Rodriguez)
Yankees trade: C Carlos Narvaez
This looked like a no-doubt win early in '25, but Narvaez struggled to adjust to a full season workload down the stretch of last year. He hit under the Mendoza Line with an ugly .197 AVG for the final three months. While he was a Gold Glove finalist, Narvi still has a lot of work to do to become a true difference maker in the lineup everyday. I will still give Breslow his flowers for this deal, but I am a little more skeptical of Narvaez’s ability to withstand a full season, especially since he had underwent a meniscus procedure in his left knee in the offseason.
Sort-Of Losses:
There are none of these types of deals in my opinion.
No-Doubt Losses:
Red Sox trade: LHP Chris Sale
Braves trade: INF Vaughn Grissom
Sale won the 2024 Cy Young. Grissom didn’t play for the big club in ‘25. Do I need to elaborate? This was a disaster.
Red Sox trade: RHP Quinn Preister
Brewers trade: 1 prospect (OF Yophry Rodriguez), #33 pick in the 2025 draft
Presieter may have struggled in the playoffs for the Brew Crew, but he went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA in 29 games (24 starts) in his first full season as a major leaguer. Considering how well the Brewers have developed pitching over the recent years, it's safe to say that Breslow missed the mark with this deal. Boston desperately needed a quality arm behind Crochet, Bello and Giolito, which is why they made this next trade. It sucks that they didn’t keep QP.
Red Sox trade: 2 prospects (OF James Tibbs III, OF Zach Ehrhard)
Dodgers trade: RHP Dustin May
Tibbs, the Giants first round pick in 2024, was a part of the Devers trade, and was then flipped 6 weeks later in what was possibly Breslow’s worst move yet. May went 1-4 with a 5.40 ERA before hitting the shelf in September with an elbow injury. This deal was such an unessiary overpay for a mediocre player that Baseball Trade Values, which is a highly accurate trade simulator for people to use, rejects this deal. The May trade reeks of "oh sh*t we need to do something" type of desperation from Breslow.
Yes, Breslow has brought in key players on this roster, but he also hasn’t done well in supplementing the roster at the deadline, like the May disaster. The Sale trade is sort of bad luck, he wasn’t fully healthy since 2017, but still, Brelsow was absolutely fleeced. I don’t trust him to make deals at all, especially during the season, something that he struggles with. Another trade that isn't aging well is the trade for current 3B Caleb Durbin. Durbin is hitting .197 while LHP Kyle Harrison (the main piece of the Devers trade) is 7-1 with a 2.72 ERA with the Brewers. Yikes.
Final Thoughts:
The Red Sox had a lot of work to do this past offseason. They needed to add a real impact bat, not some veteran “leader” like the Bregman signing was. I would have loved for them to instead of trying to bring him back, go for Schwarber or even former Mets 1B Pete Alonso. Blue Jays SS (who played 2B in the World Series), Bo Bichette was another dream of mine. He hit .311 with 94 RBI while missing a month of the season. While yes, Alonso and Bichette have struggled with their new teams, Boston didn't sign a real impact bat. Willson Contreras has had a good season, but he was brought in via a trade. Breslow has failed to sign high profile, game changing free agents, and instead has to drain the farm system in trades when a better player is out on the free agent market.
Roman Anthony showed signs of being a future superstar, but he isn’t an established offensive star like Devers was. Before his wrist injury he played in 30 games but hit .229 with only one homer and just 5 RBIs. They put far too much pressure on a young player who has barely played a half season's worth of games in his career. I believe that for a full season, Devers' loss will be felt, especially since the front office didn't add a power bat in the lineup. Look at it this way. In football if a star receiver or defensive player is in a contract holdout, you don’t trade him. You pay the man no matter how disgruntled he might be. While that isn’t an exact representation of the Boston-Devers situation, it is comparable.
It is time for Breslow to put up or shut up. The team overachieved after Devers was gone. He won that battle. But if he cannot effectively use the team up at the deadline, the Devers will look like the Mookie trade, and Raffy will win the war. Yes, 2025 was a fluke for this team, much like 2021. Breslow needs to realize that this squad needs major improvements. Chaim Bloom left the team with a good foundation for the future with drafting guys like Anthony, Mayer, and Connely Early, and trading for Wilyer Abreu. Breslow now needs to use this deadline to figure out the future of this team, not use it to buy and sell like the team has in years past.
Yet as good as the young guys have looked, I don’t believe in the team. Given ownership’s spotty track record during the last few seasons and their “full-throttle" promises that lead to nothing in the winter of 2023-2024, I just cannot trust ownership to do the right thing. Time and time again, this front office and ownership group have failed to build real a contender. The Yankees always reload at the trade deadline. The Dodgers and Mets buy stars. The Guardians and Astros always seem to be in the hunt despite lower payrolls. The Mariners have built an elite rotation and brought in key cogs for their lineup in July. The Padres are always finding new ways to out-do themselves and bring in a top player. The Blue Jays added pitching talent that propelled them 2 outs away from a title at the deadline. I just can’t trust Breslow to do the same as all of those other teams beacuse of what insider sources have reported. Seeing a GM get called out by multiple respected insiders, as well as team sources on his lack of communication skills is horrible look, and to me, doesn't bode well for the future.
I am and will always be a Red Sox fan. I will cheer for them through thick and thin. But I am very skeptical about their plan for the future. By February I very well could be writing a season preview and sound much more positive about Breslow and ownership. I also could still be bashing them for not doing enough. Dumb, cost-cutting decisions ruined my Tennessee Titans’ run for a Super Bowl in the early-2020s. I would hate to see my favorite team from my favorite sport be run into the ground because of the same choices.
Updated Thoughts:
So I actually wrote most of this piece in the winter as a follow up to my 2025 season recap, but decided to keep this in the waiting to compare the Devers trade a year later, so the perspective I have on this is interesting. So far in 2026 both Devers and Bregman are struggling. Devers is hitting .234 with just 9 homers while Bregman recently apologized for how bad he has been. Thier new teams, the Giants and Cubs, have not lived up to their lofty expectations for this year. San Fran is currently the 2nd worst team in the NL, while Chicago sits in 3rd place in the NL Central, barely clinging to a last place Wild Card spot.
As for the Red Sox did getting rid of a clubhouse "cancer" do them any good? No, not at all. Boston is 29-39, last in the AL East. They are 29th out of 30 MLB teams in home runs, and 23rd in OBP. Yes, Devers is struggling to adjust to the cavernous Oracle Park and hasn't resulted in the Giants winning games. But you can't sit here and say that his end in Boston wasn't brutally mismanaged and that the team is better off without him. Breslow is to blame for that and firing him will be the first step towards true playoff contention. The next is owner John Henry selling the team. He isn't invested, wants the team to cut payroll and milk it as a cash cow. Fans want him to sell, chants break out at Fenway Park nearly every game imploring to do so, and a guy even flew a plane over Fenway telling him to sell. He won't.
The Rafael Devers trade is a perfect example of how to ruin a team's championship window. Yeah, he was never good at defense, but from 2019-2025 he was 11th in the MLB in OPS at .872, 8th in homers at 204, 3rd in RBI with 651, and 2nd in doubles with 250. He was their offensive engine, and the team failed to support him from 2022-2024, and when they finally got him support, Breslow failed in communcating with Devers on defensive postioning and alienated the team's best homegrown star since Xander Bogaerts. It's a shame that the trade happened as it is a loss for both Devers and the Red Sox. His power, swing and approach is tailor made for Fenway, and him being gone will only hurt this ballclub for years to come.
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