For a brief moment, the Boston Red Sox were offered a respite from the incessant heckling about their decision to trade Kyle Harrison earlier this year. Caleb Durbin, the team's much-maligned third baseman, finally broke through offensively at the end of May. He now has a five-game hitting streak under his belt, during which time he's slashed .350/.333/.650 with five extra-base hits.
Unfortunately, any positive vibes were quickly dashed by Harrison, who delivered yet another gem for the Brewers against the St. Louis Cardinals. He completed 5.2 innings, striking out a whopping 12 hitters for the second time this season. He's now approaching historic territory during his debut season with the Crew.
Though he's somehow been overshadowed by Jacob Misiorowski's all-time greatness, Harrison has become the hook to the league's best one-two pitching punch. Through his first 11 starts with the Brewers, he's recorded a 1.57 ERA (2.45 FIP) and enormous 31.7% strikeout rate. His 1.9 fWAR would lead the Red Sox's pitching staff by a considerable margin. And the Red Sox gave that up just to watch Durbin scratch and claw his way to a .539 OPS.
Kyle Harrison is having one of the best starts with a franchise by any pitcher EVER 🤯 pic.twitter.com/NQeLMaWDyN
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) June 3, 2026
Red Sox simply cannot escape the horrors of the Rafael Devers fumble
Like most things going wrong for the Sox these days, this Harrison decbale can be traced back to the Rafael Devers trade disaster that is nearing its one-year anniversary. The team acquired Harrison, James Tibbs III, Jose Bello, and Jordan Hicks — not to mention the all-important salary relief — in exchange for their face of the franchise.
Let's just go down that list and examine how poorly this is all going. Hicks was so disastrously bad in Boston that the team basically handed him away to the White Sox, even attaching David Sandlin in the deal just to sweeten the pot. The lone player they got in return, Gage Ziehl, has a 5.54 ERA in Double-A this season.
Bello is the lone player that remains in the organization from the original trade, and he owns a 3.04 ERA in Low-A. Unfortunately, his 4.96 FIP suggests those results may not be entirely reliable.
Meanwhile, Tibbs has been arguably the best hitter in the minors this year, jumping onto most top prospect lists as one of the most prodigious power hitters in the Dodgers' farm system. The Red Sox also gave up Zach Ehrhard (104 wRC+ in Triple-A) in order to acquire Dustin May, whose tenure I hardly need to remind you about.
And then we get to Harrison, who would be a frontrunner for the National League Cy Young Award if not for his own teammate in Misiorowski. Durbin and Andruw Monasterio's offensive struggles have been well-documented, while David Hamilton has a better OPS than both of them. Maybe Anthony Seigler can save the trade now that he's getting the call to Boston?
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