Rafael Devers hit a home run in his final game with the Boston Red Sox, and yet that won't be the lasting image fans have of the superstar. The biggest question that has yet to be answered, in the aftermath of the trade that sent Devers to the San Francisco Giants, is how the two sides got to this point.
Sure, Devers' 2025 season was filled with tension with the front office, but it seemed that both sides had made the decision to move forward.
Last week, Sam Kennedy was asked about the drama surrounding Devers this season, including the videos of him taking ground balls, and confirmed that it was all "water under the bridge", and the Red Sox were confident Devers would be willing to do anything asked of him moving forward.
Sam Kennedy on Rafael Devers taking grounders before every game 🎙️
— NESN (@NESN) June 11, 2025
"We know that if the time is right and we need him, he'll be there." pic.twitter.com/PvWfThe0iV
That isn't just a freezing cold sports take, that's a clip that does nothing but add salt to the wound of Red Sox fans today. While the Red Sox were presenting a public front suggesting the drama between Devers and the team's front office was over, behind the scenes Craig Breslow was working to move the superstar. Note that the NESN interview with Kennedy was from last week; by all accounts, Breslow's negotiations with the Giants began three weeks ago.
It's also fair to suggest that the Red Sox did not keep Devers in the loop about the trade talks that were ongoing with the Giants. In his last public comment as a member of the Red Sox organization, Devers told reporters "all the drama and distractions were a thing of the past."
Rafael Devers last public comment as a member of the Red Sox:@ChrisCotillo: "Do you feel like all the drama and distractions, all that stuff, is behind you and behind the team from earlier?"
— Joe Weil (@Joe_Weil) June 16, 2025
Devers (through translator Carlos Villoria): "Yeah, that's past, past us."
📹: @wbz pic.twitter.com/TrTWTbi6G0
Sam Kennedy, Rafael Devers recent comments are a painful irony for Red Sox fans
There is some irony that at the center of the issues between Devers and the Red Sox was communication. Again, had Craig Breslow properly kept Devers in the loop about the team's pursuit of Alex Bregman, chances are we would not have reached a point where a shocking trade is made. Instead, Breslow made assumptions that exposed his inexperience as the top executive in a front office.
And now, Devers' last comments with the Red Sox are a painful sign of how much of a communication gap there was between him and the front office — something Breslow all but confirmed during Monday night's Zoom presser when he was grilled about that exact topic by multiple reporters.