Story by
Latest Red Sox trade means almost all of Rafael Devers return is gone; is Craig Breslow surprised?
- Story by
- Latest Red Sox trade means almost all of Rafael Devers return is gone; is Craig Breslow surprised?
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The main headline from Monday’s six-player trade that brought Caleb Durbin to the Red Sox is that Boston received a promising young infielder who seems poised to take over at either second base or third base as the full-time starter in 2025. A lesser piece of the puzzle? That chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has now traded away almost the entirety of the four-player package he received from the Giants in the Rafael Devers blockbuster in June.
Boston traded starter Kyle Harrison — the main piece acquired for Devers less than eight months ago — along with infielder David Hamilton and lefty pitcher Shane Drohan for Durbin, infielders Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler and a draft pick Monday. The Red Sox have also traded reliever Jordan Hicks (to the White Sox in a salary dump last month) and outfield prospect James Tibbs III (to the Dodgers for Dustin May at the trade deadline) and have only one player from the Devers return, young pitching prospect Jose Bello , left in the organization. In Harrison and Hicks, the two big league players acquired for Devers, the Red Sox got just 30 ⅔ innings.
Advertisement
“It’s a business,” said manager Alex Cora.
When the Red Sox made the surprising decision to deal a disgruntled Devers after months of drama related to his positional future, the main objective was moving on from an untenable situation with a star player. A secondary (yet still important) impact of the deal was financial flexibility — San Francisco took on the entirety of the Devers’ contract, worth more than $250 million through 2031 — that the Red Sox promised to re-purpose and somewhat have in the form of long-term deals for outfielder Roman Anthony and starter Ranger Suárez . By taking on all of the remaining money on Devers’ 10-year, $313.5 million mega-deal, the Giants were able to send less to the Red Sox in terms of player value. Still, Boston viewed Harrison as an intriguing rotation prospect at the time of the deal with Tibbs (a first-round pick less than 12 months before the deal) and Hicks (a change-of-scenery candidate) having upside as well.
Now, all three are gone.
“I think what I would have said, which is still true, is that we like the players that we got back but at the same time we have to always be willing to make moves that maybe are uncomfortable but give us a better chance of winning now and in the future,” said Breslow when asked if he’s surprised all three players have been traded so quickly. “Yeah, I probably would have been surprised because I would have said we think that Kyle Harrison is a very good major league starter and we think that James Tibbs is an exciting prospect and we think that Jordan Hicks can pitch at the back end of a game out of the bullpen.
Advertisement
“At the same time, if you would have said ‘If you believe that there were opportunities to improve your team, would you pursue them?’ I would have said, ’Absolutely.’”
Tibbs played just 30 games at Double-A Portland before being shipped (with Zach Ehrhard) to the Dodgers in an ill-fated last-minute deadline deal for May, who struggled to a 5.40 ERA in six games for the Red Sox then missed the final month due to injury. Tibbs is now rated by Baseball America as Los Angeles ’ No. 26 prospect after a strong showing (.900 OPS) in the final two months. Hicks was an abject disaster in Boston (8.20 ERA in 21 games) and the club had to attach pitching prospect David Sandlin to him in order to get the White Sox to take on most of Hicks’ remaining two-year, $24 million deal (while netting pitching prospect Gage Ziehl back) . Harrison spent months at Triple-A Worcester, then pitched well in a three-game cameo for the Red Sox at the end of the season and made the postseason roster. He did not pitch in the three-game Wild Card Series in New York.
Harrison was expendable, just like fellow departed young pitchers Sandlin, Drohan, Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts , because of the amount of rotation depth the Red Sox have amassed in recent months.
“Harry, the time he was here, he was great,” said Cora. “We wish them nothing but the best.”
Advertisement
Bello, who will turn 21 in May, pitched well after the deal. He logged a 3.14 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 14 ⅓ innings in rookie ball before being promoted to Single-A Salem, where he made seven appearances (four starts) and had a 3.09 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 23 ⅓ innings. SoxProspects.com ranks him as the 55th-best prospect in the farm system.
More Red Sox coverage
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
