Red Sox Bombshell: Insiders Go Behind Scenes Of Rafael Devers Trade

The Boston Red Sox made one of the most shocking trades you are ever going to see on Sunday.

Boston has been good lately and we are over a month away from the 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline. The season has been turning around and yet the Red Sox traded arguably the face of the franchise on Sunday by sending superstar slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.

It was an odd day and now the Red Sox are going to have to deal with the fallout.

A deal like this begs the question about what was going on behind the scenes. ESPN's Buster Olney pulled back the curtain a tad on Sunday Night Baseball, as transcribed by WEEI's Tom Carroll.

"(Devers) had reached an impasse with the Red Sox. Getting text messages from executives, other teams have been talking with the Red Sox. They basically are saying that after Devers did not respond following John Henry getting on a plane and going out to Kansas City, and he didn't take ground balls after that, the perception of other teams was, ‘Yeah, he was gone.’ Red Sox were going to move him when he didn't respond to the owner who was paying him that contract."

ESPN's Jeff Passan continued the discussion about the stunner on Monday on "The Pat McAfee Show."

"Let's start with how it happened," Passan said. "This dates back to the end of the offseason when Alex Bregman was still a free agent...All winter long the Red Sox had been in the mix with Nolan Arenado discussions and with signing Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers was ensured 'You're cool' like all of this is overblown. Turns out it wasn't. And so Bregman signs for three years and $120 million with the Red Sox and goes to Spring Training and all of a sudden the Red Sox are like actually Bregman is a Gold Globe-caliber third baseman and you're not so what do you think of DHing? Raffy Devers was like, no, I don't want to do that...

"Based on the communication in the offseason and acknowledging just how much of somebody's identity and their personality is based on the position they've played their entire lives, it took him a little while to come to it. But, finally, he was like 'Alright, I'll DH.' He was told you're not going to need a glove...A lot of people thought Devers' contract was untradable...Earlier this week, there were conversations going on between the Giants and the Red Sox about potential other deals. Devers' name came up and something came together very quickly. The timing of it was just horrendous for Red Sox fans."

You aren't going to see too many trades more surprising than this one.