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Former Giants Prospect Has Huge Night in Double-A After Being Traded to Red Sox

Originally posted on San Francisco Giants on SI
By Michael Brauner | Last updated Jul 2, 2025 2:00 PM ET

The San Francisco Giants are struggling right now top to bottom, and that even includes their brand new superstar Rafael Devers.

Acquiring Devers was supposed to provide a massive boost to the offense, and while he got off to an impressive start, he has struggled significantly in the last two weeks and the overall body of work for him since arriving is not strong.

Devers will figure it out and eventually start hitting again, but it makes it a bit worse to see what one of the return pieces for the Boston Red Sox did on Tuesday night in the minor leagues.

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Understandably, much of the discussion around the trade revolved around Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks as the Major League pieces, however, the Giants also sent over two of their best prospects in James Tibbs III and Jose Bello.

Tibbs, San Francisco's first-round selection from last year, was already having a nice season in High-A Eugene, but since the trade, he has made the jump to Double-A for Boston's Portland affiliate and is starting to put it together.

With a three-hit night on Tuesday for Portland, Tibbs appears to have made the transition to Double-A seamlessly and is well on his way to likely making a big league debut sometime next season.

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3-hit night for James Tibbs III (@RedSox No. 6 prospect), one of the players acquired in exchange for Rafael Devers.

The 13th overall pick from the 2024 Draft has an .834 OPS across two levels this season.@PortlandSeaDogs | @RedSoxPlayerDev | @FSUBaseball pic.twitter.com/aM5pXzph1d
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 2, 2025

Tibbs has played 12 games in Portland and is slashing an impressive .283/.382/.348 with 13 hits including a double and a triple, dramatically raising his batting average from the .246 mark he had in 57 games for Eugene this year.

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Seemingly starting to figure it out as a hitter, the Giants could see their former draft pick really start to climb the minor league ladder, just in another uniform than they had hoped.

If Devers turns it around and becomes the elite hitter San Francisco believed they were getting, then none of this matters.

Until that happens, though, Giants fans are understandably going to pay close attention to what Tibbs and the rest of the return package is able to do.

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Fair or not, Devers and the players who were part of the blockbuster deal will be under a microscope for the rest of their careers as everyone tries to evaluate who got the better end of the trade.

San Francisco will have to hope they came out on top in this one.

For more Giants news, head over to Giants On SI.

This article first appeared on San Francisco Giants on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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