The dust has fully settled after last weekend's blockbuster trade sending Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants, and reality has begun to set in. Yes, that really did just happen: Boston really did ship out its best hitter and most expensive player without seeming to shop him all that much around the league in one of the most shocking midseason deals in baseball history.
But the Devers trade didn't happen overnight. According to a new report from ESPN's Jeff Passan, it was the culmination of months if not years of dysfunction and disgruntlement among the clubhouse, coaching staff, front office and ownership, from Boston's decision to let previous stars like Mookie Betts walk to the commitment to pay Devers to the circumstances that led to him being moved off of third base in spring training after the arrival of Alex Bregman.
With a move this seismic, there's never just one party at fault. So, knowing what we know now thanks to Passan's reporting and others, who should shoulder most of the blame here? Let's break it down.
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5. Manager Alex Cora
Breslow has been the one primarily in the crosshairs in the aftermath of the move; he is, after all, the one who pulled the trigger, both on the decision to trade Devers and on the decision to get what appears at first glance to be a somewhat underwhelming package in return for one of the 20 or so best hitters in the league. But Cora has had a big part to play in this drama as well, and he's a real reason why things devoled the way they did.
Cora is the one in the clubhouse on a daily basis, at home and on the road. He was long reported to be among Devers' biggest defenders: The two seemed to have a strong relationship, and Cora wasn't shy about going to bat for his young star time and time again. At some point along the line, though, something broke down, with Passan reporting that even Cora supported moving on from Devers last weekend.
Cora didn't have primary say in the positional switch that precipitated all this drama. But he didn't help matters with some awfully blunt comments in spring training, and he didn't seem to try all that hard to mend fences once it became clear that things had turned sour. Which isn't to say that he should have; he's got other things on his plate, obviously. But arguably a manager's most important job is navigating personalities in the clubhouse, and Cora wasn't the man to bring a fractured team together. Plus, he reportedly played a big part in the deal that set all this in motion in the first place.
4. 3B Alex Bregman
Bregman has been everything the Red Sox could've hoped for when they signed him to a surprising three-year, $120 million deal at the start of spring training. He got off to a scorching start before going down with a quad injury, and even while he's been on the IL, his leadership and his connection with Boston's young players has been obvious.
It's also worth noting that all of the above provided an all-too-convenient foil to Devers. Where the latter never really seemed too interested in embracing a leadership role, the former grabbed hold of it within days of arriving to his new team. Had Bregman taken the money and headed to the Detroit Tigers, Devers would have remained at third base, allowing Kristian Campbell to start at second and Roman Anthony to assume DH duties as soon as he was ready. And maybe Boston wouldn't have realized just how far Devers was from the culture they wanted to create in their young roster.
3. Owner John Henry
Taking the macro view, Henry might be more responsible for the position Boston is in than anyone else. Not paying Xander Bogaerts some $180 million looks just fine in hindsight, but not making a serious effort to retain Mookie Betts ... well, not so much. And Passan reports that the Betts debacle, combined with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning it all in 2020, made Henry extra motivated to make sure the same didn't happen with Devers — even despite some objections from members of the front office.
"[Devers] represented an opportunity for the Red Sox to illustrate they remained dedicated to the now as much as the future," Passan writes. "Making moves to mollify restless fans is a hallmark of bad organizations, but with declining viewership on NESN and empty seats at Fenway, ownership pushed to lock up Devers long-term. Multiple high-ranking officials in the baseball operations department opposed the idea. They were overruled."
Concerns about locking Devers up for that period of time at that number were already beginning to swirl, given his lack of defensive aptitude or versatility. But Henry was determined to write previous wrongs, and so set the Red Sox down the path to some very wonky roster problems. He also appeared to have put his thumb on the scale when it came time to trade Devers; it seems likely that Boston took the Giants' deal because they were willing to take on the entirety of his contract, which is music to Henry's ears.
2. DH Rafael Devers
You can provide all the context you want. You can point out how callous and careless it was for Boston to not keep its word and keep Devers in the loop when it came to its pursuit of Bregman and Nolan Arenado, as well as the way it handled broaching a position change at the start of spring training. You can point to Breslow's track record of (mis)managing personalities in his own organization, or Devers continuing to mash through all the noise.
But the simple fact is that Triston Casas' injury created a pressing need, one that Devers was physically capable of fulfilling but simply opted not to. He had his reasons for that, some better than others. But when you're making that much money, it's not all that much to ask to try and fill in for a fallen teammate. Had Devers been a bit less stubborn, we might not be here right now.
1. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow
Of course, had Breslow made any number of different choices, we certainly wouldn't be here right now. Ultimately, the buck stops with him: He's the lead decision-maker for this franchise, and he's the one who decided it was in its best interests to trade Devers to San Francisco.
And as more information becomes available, it sure seems like Devers isn't the only one who's felt mistreated by Breslow since he took the rains in Boston. There was the controversy about AI being used in hiring practices, and the ruthless commitment to efficiency that has led to plenty of hurt feelings (and lost jobs).
Maybe getting another team to take Devers' deal off the Red Sox' hands really is the best thing in the long run. but there's no reason for a team as rich as Boston to be just giving up on hitters that good, and the way Breslow handled the Bregman saga this offseason — lying to Devers' face and then feigning shock that the slugger might not take well to being abruptly told that he was now a full-time DH — suggests that he has a way to go when it comes to building an organization.