In less than 24 hours, the Boston Red Sox organization has been picked apart extensively by media members and fans alike following their shocking decision to part ways with perennial All-Star slugger Rafael Devers. But according to Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, the trade won’t necessarily negatively the team’s short-term outlook as many are predicting.
On Monday, Breslow and other executives inside the Red Sox organization addressed reporters who understandably had plenty of questions regarding the reasoning behind the trade.
Breslow understands that, on paper, the trade appears to be one that takes an elite-level bat out of the lineup in return for four players who have potential, but no guarantee of ever being anywhere near as productive as Devers has been for the Red Sox.
However, Breslow believes that moving Devers presents more flexibility to work in young players in the lineup, which he believes could actually lead to more wins than they would have otherwise had with Devers this season.
“I understand the initial reaction,” said Breslow. “…When you move a player of Raffy’s caliber, when you take that bat out of the lineup, how can I sit here and say that we’re a better team? I acknowledge that on paper we’re not going to have the same lineup we did. But this isn’t about the game that is played on paper. It’s about the game that is played on the field and ultimately about winning the most games that we can. And in order to do that, trying to put together the most functional and complete team that we can.
“I think when you consider the flexibility, the ability to give some of the young players some run, the opportunity to maybe repackage some of the resources and fill some voids in the roster as early as this year’s deadline, and being really intentional about the environment that we create for these young players to thrive in, I do think there’s a real chance that at the end of the season, we’re looking back and we’ve won more games than we otherwise would have.”
Maybe Breslow will end up being correct. After all, he did spend 12 years in the MLB as a player and has seen plenty of big trades like this go down over the years.
But unfortunately for him, the only thing that anyone can go off of when judging this trade is how things look on paper.
Going off what we can currently, we know that the Red Sox traded away a player in Devers who ranks inside the top 15 in all of baseball in OPS. So if the Red Sox do indeed win more game without Devers this season, it would definitely be a surprise to the vast majority of baseball fans.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.