First Betts, now devers? Red Sox, under the magnifying glass

John Henry and company transferred to another icon of the franchise. What are left now to appease Fenway fans? Gain!

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For months, while the confrontation between Rafael Devers And the Red Sox, Boston’s fans never booed his designated batter. This would probably have surprised others who lived that lovely experience, such as the member of the Hall of Fame Ted Williamswho once spat to a hostile audience in Fenway Park, and Roger Clemens (even before launching for your rival).

On the other hand, the fans of the Red socks He almost unanimously cheered Devers, to the ignominious end of his stay in Boston on Sunday. Hours after connecting another homer against the New York Yankees, they called him from the club’s travel group and told him that he had been transferred to the opposite coast. The fact that the fans have never been fully directed against Devers despite their refusal to do what generations of stars have done: accept the change for the common good of the team; In this case, changing from third to first base position says much more of its distrust of the leadership of the red socks than that the Red Medias nation has softened.

That skepticism was unleashed on the radio, tweets and text messages in the hours after the transfer of Devers, with furious and cynical reactions. “They are not even a real organization,” wrote a New England veteran and Red Sox fan. “Here we go again,” another wrote. “First Mookie. Then Xander. Now Raffy.”

This type of reactions will grow exponentially if Boston wobbles in the coming weeks. The Red Sox had won eight of their last 10 games when the agreement was closed, including five of six against the Yankees, division leaders, and just when the dysfunctional team began to operate in the field, they exchanged their best batter.

But this is a scandal that has been brewing for more than five years. The exchange of Mookie Betts, a local star, in 2020 has become the prism through which all the decisions of the Red Sox are analyzed. John Henry He has been the most successful owner of baseball during the last quarter of a century, with four championships, and, nevertheless, much of the team’s fans sees it as a stingy and selfless owner who uses the money of the Red Sox to finance their other sports hobbies.

Craig Breslow, Head of Baseball Operations of the Red Soxdefended the exchange when he spoke with the press on Monday, saying: “This in no way means ending 2025. We are as committed as six months ago with putting a winning team in the field, competing for the division and going far in the postseason.”

Breslow spoke as if the effort to win continue. But many Boston fans believe that the board stopped prioritizing success in the field after the 2018 championship, and that the failed attempt to retain Betts was a turning point. When the direction of the Red Sox interviewed candidates to replace Former Dave Dombrowski baseball operations In 2019, it was made clear to Chaim Bloom (who finally obtained the position) and others who were expected to negotiate Betts. After the exchange of Betts to Los Angeles Dodgers by Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong and Jeter Downs, the Red Sox have practically lost their place as a baseball power. And the new Betts team has more titles of World Series (two) that winning seasons have the Red Sox (one) from the exchange.

The protest of the fans against the Devers agreement greatly disagreed from the opinion of the industry. Many rival executives thought the Red Sox did well to get rid of a one -dimensional star with a expensive contract that rejected numerous requests for change, receiving in return four players from the San Francisco Giants, including the talented left -handed Kyle Harrison. “What the hell did the giants accepting all that contract?” Asked an executive rhetorically by text message. “My God! That agreement will not end well.”

Another executive said that, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is terrible, the management of the management of the Devers’s situation was a six. “They made mistakes,” he said. “Devers’s management was a 10 out of 10 in terms of how bad it was.”

Regardless of how Devers has handled the situation, it is evident that the Red Sox have work to do to cover the position it leaves.

“(The Red Sox) did a good job in this exchange, in the long term,” said an executive. “But they will miss it. A batter like Devers is not going to be replaced.”

What matters now for the Red Sox is what they will do next. After the exchange of Betts, they adopted an unusual reconstruction approach for large team, a decision that led to the fans of their current cynicism. On the limit exchanges dates of recent years, the Red Sox have retreated or have not added players. The responsibility of adding players falls to Breslow and Henry, even if that implies increasing payroll and spending resources. The fans do not believe that leaders care about winning, and the only way in which Red Sox can change that is winning. To achieve this, the ORGANIZATION OF THE RED SOX needs to learn from this situation and apply it from now on. And Devers himself should do the same.

His frustration and reluctance to work with the team had been evident since the Red Sox signed the All-Star Alex Bregman in February. Devers said he was promised the third base when he accepted his contract of $ 313.5 million in January 2023, an statement that rival evaluators see with suspicion.

“Who could promise something like that?” Said an executive. “Things change very fast: injuries, players who come and go. They don’t give you a lifesty stall.”

Even when it became clear that an ascent to First Base would help Red Sox to incorporate young players like Roman Anthony, Devers rejected it. As he adapts to the Giants, he has the opportunity to be more open in mind and to work with his new team, instead of doing so at the expense of others.

As for Breslow, he needs to hear the feedback that comes from all corners of the franchise: his interpersonal skills are poor. In his year and a half with the Red Sox, Breslow has failed to forge a relationship with the most important player of the team. You have to talk more with others, connect more, because when you do not build these relationships, which accumulates in the vacuum of the conversation is the type of communicative deterioration that was developed with Devers.

And it is not just about Devers: others in the organization say that the presence of Breslow is rigid and ineffective, a problem that became revealed after an incident in a zoom call with the staff last month. According to Fuentes, a veteran cazatalentos, Carl Moeschehe assumed that his voice was not heard in the call and said out loud: “Thank you, Bres, you are completely rigid.” Moesche was later fired, but Breslow must recognize that Moesche’s opinion reflects that of other Employees of the Red Sox, and that is a huge problem.

He Red Sox manager Alex Corait must recognize that, in the drama of Devers, it was ineffective. He maintains a long relationship of affection and respect with Devers, but as rival executives point out, what did that relationship with the organization serve, in reality, if Cora failed that Devers did what he, Breslow and Henry needed? Only Cora and Devers know what they said, but whether Cora decided to do good police before Breslow’s bad police or who believed better to support Devers instead of facing him, he did not work.

And, above all, Henry must reflect: he must recognize that it was his original sin that put Boston in this situation. He decided not to pay his best and most dynamic player what he was worth, subjecting the Betts tax franchise that continues to pay again and again. When not signing Betts, the Red Sox ceded at the pressure of frustrated fans in their negotiations with Devers, accepting an agreement that worried some in the franchise, given doubts about the ability to lend to lead and if he was destined to become a designated hitter overpaid.

Henry needs to do what he did not do with Betts, Jon Lester, Xander Bogaerts, Chris Sale and others: conserve the best stars. Pay to keep the next Yaz, the next Ortiz. Maybe it’s Roman Anthony, maybe Marcelo Mayer, maybe Jarren Duran. As John Middleton, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies said last year, fans do not care about the final result of the owner. They care to win. Henry needs to demonstrate, once and for all, that this is also his priority.