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Red Sox Make Major Roster Move After Trading Rafael Devers to Giants

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Cole Sullivan | Last updated Jun 15, 2025 10:19 PM ET

The Boston Red Sox have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the past week—winning five straight games, seven of their last eight, and capping it off with a sweep of the New York Yankees on Sunday.

Now sitting above .500 for the first time in over a month, the team made a stunning move by trading three-time All-Star and longest-tenured Red Sox, Rafael Devers, to the San Francisco Giants. In return, Boston received pitchers Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison, along with minor league prospects James Tibbs III and Jose Bello.

Roughly an hour after MLB insiders broke the news, the Red Sox and Giants made the deal official. Shortly after, Boston made a somewhat surprising roster decision by optioning Harrison—who had made eight appearances and four starts for the Giants this season—to Triple-A Worcester.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the club designated LHP Zach Penrod for assignment.
— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 16, 2025

They also designated left-handed pitcher Zach Penrod for assignment. Penrod has made seven appearances for the Red Sox this season, posting a 2.25 ERA across 4.0 innings pitched.

After Sunday’s victory, Boston is now 37-36 overall and sits fourth in the AL East. However, they remain just 6.5 games out of first place in the division and only half a game out of an AL Wild Card spot. That makes the decision to trade Devers all the more surprising, given he’s been one of their best bats this season.

Fans quickly reacted to the Red Sox’s roster moves following the unpopular decision to trade Rafael Devers.

"This may be the worst trade of all time," a fan said.

Another fan posted, "This might actually be worse than the Mookie trade & I didn’t think that was possible."

Someone else added, "Entire front office needs to be fired tomorrow."

One more fan commented, "So you [explicit] optioned the only asset you got back."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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