Red Sox cite issues with ‘alignment’ and ‘vision’ leading to Rafael Devers trade

On Sunday night many Boston Red Sox fans were blindsided when the team traded designated hitter Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. About 26 hours after the trade was announced the team's decision makers spoke for the first time, with team CEO and president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow answering questions for just under 40 minutes during a zoom call with reporters on Monday night.

In what was, in a sense, them telling their side of the story after different narratives were suggested in the media throughout the day, there were a few common themes in what Kennedy and Breslow talked about.

The most common one was the duo discussing a lack of 'alignment' on a 'vision' - two key words the duo used quite a bit - with Devers in terms of his role within the organization.

"In the end, I think it's pretty clear that we couldn't find alignment with Raffy - is the truth," Kennedy explained. "We all worked at it over the last several months, going back to the offseason, starting with [manager] Alex Cora and Craig and the staff, and then up to me and all the way up to [owner] John Henry. We worked at it. We had a different vision for him going forward than he had and we couldn't get there. We couldn't find alignment and we reached that inflection point and made the decision to make a big move."

"In terms of what was missing, it just was that alignment in terms of what we felt we needed from him that would be in the absolute best interest of the ball club. That's a non-starter for us. We have to have that. We couldn't get there," Kennedy later added. "We didn't get to the alignment that we needed in the best interest of the Boston Red Sox. So we made the decision that we made."

Despite referring to that 'vision' multiple times, Breslow declined to answer when asked directly what that vision was.

"I think it's best to just leave it at we just didn't have the same shared vision for what was in the best interest of the team on the field," he replied.

Two things from Monday might hint at where the Sox and Devers were out of alignment. The first comes on the field. Another thing that was mentioned throughout the 40 minute press conference was the team wanting to have more 'flexibility' with the lineup and roster.

Breslow particularly noted "some more flexibility at the DH spot" and the ability to "rotate through" different players in that spot to "open up at-bats." That had been blocked by Devers' refusal to play the field, which dates back to the spring when the Red Sox initially moved him from third base, something he was vocally upset with. That issue was further complicated when the team lost first baseman Triston Casas to a season-ending knee injury about a month into the season.

The tone in the locker room may have played a role too, based on what Breslow said. Later in the press conference, ESPN's Jeff Passan asked what the Red Sox 'want their identity, culture, and environment to be that it couldn't be with Devers on the team.

"I can talk about my experiences, you know, on championship-caliber teams," Breslow explained. "And unfortunately I keep going back to this, but what it keeps coming to is this idea that the hole is greater than the sum of the parts. That each individual is contributing and finding a way to help a team win, whether that is in the batter's box, on the pitcher's mound, on the bases on defense, in the clubhouse, on the bench. It's the willingness to step up and sacrifice at times of need and essentially kind of do whatever is necessary to help the team win. And I think that's the identity, this relentless pursuit of winning, that we're looking for. It's the it's the identity that the World Series Championship teams had had in the past."

However, he declined to say exactly what part of that Devers wasn't fulfilling. "I don't think it makes sense at this point to kind of be overly pointed or critical," he said. "I think we failed to reach that alignment. It was a really strong fit here for a really long time, and then became evident that it had started to diverge. And so, I think best to identify it, own it and act decisively to fix it."

That 'fix' was viewed by many to be mainly a salary dump, with the Giants taking on the full remainder of what was a 10-year, $313.5 million contract that was signed before the 2023 season. Both Kennedy and Breslow declined that there was a directive to fully unload the contract when making the trade.

"There was no mandate. The mandate is to assemble the best team that we possibly could," Breslow explained. "And in order to do that, we needed to create a more functional roster and give certain guys more playing time, be able to rotate through the DH spot, potentially match up there. And also, this is a roster that certainly has some needs and we can talk about starting pitching and bullpen help. And we think that we addressed some of those in the return that we had in this deal."

"We're absolutely excited about bringing in Jordan Hicks, a dominant late inning reliever into our mix, and Kyle Harrison, someone we think can pitch in the front half of a rotation," he later added.

It wasn't that long ago that starter Harrison was viewed as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. But, now 23 years old, he has a 4.48 ERA in 39 MLB appearances over the past three years including a 4.56 ERA this year.

Meanwhile Hicks, began his career as a reliever but has been used to start games at times for the Giants over the last two years. This year he's started nine of his 13 appearances with a 6.47 ERA in 48.2 innings. Breslow's comments make it sound like he'll slot back in the 'pen in Boston, but he is currently on the 15-day IL due to a toe injury.

To sum it up, the Red Sox's 'company line' on this trade seems to be three-fold - they didn't have the 'alignment' on a 'vision' with Devers and needed the pitching help, and weren't strongly motivated by the monetary element of things. It's a tough sell to a fanbase that has repeatedly seen superstar players leave down and overall significant roster turnover while the team has posted the 16th-best win percentage in baseball since the start of the 2019 season (50.3% entering Monday night's game).

The Red Sox are claiming this one is different, and they will have a chance to prove that in the very near future. They have a chance to use some of their newfound 'flexibility' - both in terms of the roster and payroll - to re-add to the team at the upcoming MLB trade deadline. Earlier on Monday, MassLive reported that possibility remains on the table.

"The Devers deal opens the door for a major trade deadline addition of a controllable, high-dollar player and a high-ranking source indicated Sunday that the Red Sox, at 37-36 after a big weekend sweep of the Yankees, still wholeheartedly intend to buy at the trade deadline and shop aggressively," the report from Cotillo and Sean McAdam reads. “That, obviously, could change with a bad few weeks in the wake of the Devers move. For now, though, the club’s eyes are on additions.”

Breslow himself also hinted at that possibility on Monday. "I think when you consider the flexibility...the opportunity to maybe repackage some of the resources and fill some voids in the roster as early as - approaching this year's deadline."

"I do think that there is 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," he added.

If Breslow and the Red Sox can actually follow through on that - both the deadline additions and the end-of-season record - they will have proven this deal is in fact different than so many player departures the team has seen in recent years (namely the Mookie Betts trade that this deal has regularly been compared to). Given their recent track record though, this might be more of a 'see it to believe it' situation.