Vibes aren't the greatest among Boston Red Sox fans, and it's hard to blame them for feeling the way they do. The Red Sox traded Rafael Devers, the face of the franchise and the team's best hitter, to the San Francisco Giants seemingly out of nowhere in exchange for what can only be classified as an underwhelming return. Even with the deal being a major dud in the mind of Red Sox fans, the team continues to play its best baseball of the season, even without the slugger.
The Red Sox won again on Wednesday, giving them nine wins in their last 11 games and improving their overall record to 39-37. The Red Sox took two of three on the road against the Seattle Mariners, and have now won four straight series. With this recent hot streak, the Red Sox have taken over the third Wild Card spot in the AL as of this writing.
This team continues to win, but even amid the hot streak, fans are not thrilled. As crazy as it sounds, they're right to be down on their club.
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Red Sox keep winning, but fans already miss Rafael Devers
The Red Sox were able to win their first Devers-less series, but they scored a total of five runs in the three games in Seattle. There's no shame in getting shut down by a dominant Mariners pitching staff, especially when they faced Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, and Luis Castillo, but for the most part, teams will struggle when they average fewer than two runs per game.
Say what you want about Devers' defense and how good of a teammate he is or isn't, but his bat is undeniably elite. I'd argue one of the 10 best hitters in the game at worst. Taking that bat out of the lineup and not acquiring a single MLB-ready hitter in the trade makes the lineup substantially worse, especially with Triston Casas out for the year and Alex Bregman out with an injury of his own.
Their offense was already scuffling with Devers, as the Red Sox had scored four runs or fewer in each of his final five games in Boston. That streak has extended to eight games now, and with the names in their lineup, regularly, it might be tough for the Red Sox to score many runs consistently.
Red Sox have work to do to be the team fans envisioned
Entering the year, Red Sox fans had World Series expectations for this team. Sure, the first half of the year hasn't gone to plan, but they were beginning to turn their season around right when Devers got traded. I mean, they had just swept the division-leading New York Yankees to get back over .500. With the roster Boston had, there was reason to believe this team had a deep postseason run in them when healthy, especially given how weak the AL is. The Devers trade changes things.
It might be a smart decision in the long run not to pay a DH who was clearly unhappy in Boston upwards of $300 million, but for 2025, trading Devers hurts. It's really hard to expect this roster as constructed to do much, if they can make the postseason at all.
For fans to fully buy back in, the Red Sox are going to have to make a major splash or two. It's nice to see the Red Sox scratch wins together with Abraham Toro hitting second and Romy Gonzalez hitting clean-up against right-handed pitching, but that's obviously not sustainable. The fan base knows that, and has no reason to get giddy about some June success with a roster that isn't good enough to win the World Series.
If the Red Sox are active in a big way at July's trade deadline, perhaps the fan base will start to get excited. Until then, Red Sox fans won't let a couple of wins against a flawed Mariners team distract them that the organization traded a three-time All-Star in the middle of his prime.