The Boston Red Sox did the unthinkable on Sunday when they traded Rafael Devers to the Giants. We all knew that the front office and Devers were not on great terms after Craig Breslow's ham-fisted handling of Devers' position shifts following the Alex Bregman deal, but no one realistically thought that they would actually ship him out of town.
As it turns out, the finalization of the trade would only be the beginning of the disrespect Boston would show Devers.
The timing of trades can lead to some awkward moments. They can happen in the middle of games and a player has to be pulled immediately off the field, leading to Hug Watch, and they can happen in the middle of travel, which can drastically alter plans. However, it isn't often that you see a team tell a guy that he is traded, then pull him off the team's flight to fend for himself.
However, that is exactly what Boston did with Devers when the news of the trade broke on Father's Day.
Rafael Devers was unceremoniously pulled off the Red Sox team flight after trade was struck with Giants
Again, there is no actually delicate way to handle these situations. Boston is heading to Seattle and, if we are being honest, having Devers on that long flight talking about how happy he is about the trade probably isn't ideal on a number of fronts. The Giants are starting a series against the Guardians on Tuesday and, presumably, they will want the newest jewel of their lineup in uniform for that series opener.
That said, the timing of all of this seems really haphazard and uncoordinated. That is fitting, given how the Red Sox front office has handled this whole Devers situation from the jump, but was there no way to work out this trade any other time besides late on a holiday Sunday evening? We can only assume that Boston didn't want to waste any time in infuriating the fans that pay their checks.
This is a dark point for the Red Sox as a franchise. Yes, they just got $250ish million off their payroll that, in theory, can be used to round out the roster elsewhere, and Devers moving on does help their roster logjam. However, this feels a lot like the Mookie Betts trade, where the move is a solution in search of a problem and the Red Sox decided that a franchise icon wasn't worth the trouble that they caused.