Few individuals on Earth can relate to the Rafael Devers commerce in addition to Mookie Betts, however even he struggled to wrap his thoughts round it.
Betts, whom the Boston Purple Sox traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5 years in the past, described feeling “shocked and stunned” Sunday when Boston shipped Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
“It definitely does help their ballclub,” Betts instructed ESPN’s “SportsCenter” hours after the commerce. “It’d help any team. Everyone knows what he does, so it’ll make this NL West more interesting.”
Certainly, the loaded NL West is shaping as much as be MLB’s hottest attraction this summer time.
Getting into Tuesday, the division-leading Dodgers held a 2.5-game lead over the Giants and a four-game benefit over the San Diego Padres.
All three groups had been not less than seven video games over .500, whereas the Arizona Diamondbacks, at 36-35 and 7 video games out of first place, had been hanging round, too.
In Devers, the Giants lastly landed the lineup-altering energy hitter that’s eluded them for years.
“I think the bat is so special,” stated Buster Posey, the Giants’ president of baseball operations.
“It’s really hard to acquire this type of talent at this point in his career. We’re obviously taking on a lot of money. We’re giving up some pitching. We’re giving up our first-round pick from last year, so it didn’t come without a cost. But we felt like this was a chance to take a shot.”
The Giants constructed a 41-31 document behind a pitching employees whose 3.27 ERA was the third greatest in baseball. However their middling lineup restricted their upside in a division the place the Dodgers and Padres boast equally robust pitching however superior offensive firepower.
In current offseasons, San Francisco made spirited makes an attempt to signal sluggers together with Aaron Choose and Carlos Correa to no avail, with Correa agreeing to a mega-deal earlier than failing a bodily.
The left-handed Devers now turns into the focus of a lineup that, when totally wholesome, additionally options stable right-handed hitters in Matt Chapman and Willy Adames, each of whom signed nine-figure contracts inside the final yr.
“They’re going for it,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated after the Devers commerce. “They put themselves in a position to make a run, and they got better.”
The defending champion Dodgers stay the favorites within the NL West, with Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman fueling MLB’s highest-scoring offense. Nevertheless, an onslaught of injured pitchers — together with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — has made Los Angeles a bit extra weak.
The Padres had been a playoff workforce final yr, however their lineup has underperformed, even with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. having productive seasons. Xander Boegarts — a former teammate of Betts and Devers in Boston — has been notably disappointing, carrying a .232 common and three residence runs into Tuesday.
That opened the window for the Giants.
“They’re a good team,” Dodgers infielder Tommy Edman stated. “To add a good hitter like that makes them a little bit more dangerous than they already are. Fortunately, we didn’t have to face him in [last weekend’s] series, and I’m sure it’ll change some preparation down the road.”
Devers, 28, signed a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension earlier than the 2023 season, however his relationship with the Boston entrance workplace fractured this yr.
After the Purple Sox signed Alex Bregman in February, Devers balked at shifting off of third base to accommodate his new teammate. Devers finally settled in at designated hitter, then refused to study first base after Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee harm.
“We worked at it,” Purple Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy stated. “We had a different vision for [Devers] 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.”
With Boston this season, Devers batted .272 with 15 residence runs and 58 RBI, all of which led the workforce. Devers homered in his last sport with the Purple Sox, serving to them end a weekend sweep of the Yankees and transfer a sport above .500.
However common supervisor Craig Breslow insisted that buying and selling away Boston’s greatest participant was “in no way signifying a waving of the white flag on 2025.”
“As we think about the identity and the culture and the environment that is created by great teams, there was something amiss here,” Breslow stated. “And it was something that we needed to act decisively to course correct.”
To accumulate Devers, the Giants parted with right-hander Jordan Hicks, left-hander Kyle Harrison and a pair of prospects, together with outfielder James Tibbs III, the thirteenth general decide in final yr’s draft.
The Giants agreed to tackle the rest of Devers’ contract, too.
That’s the price to contend within the wild, wild NL West.
“This is something we really needed,” Giants supervisor Bob Melvin stated. “There’s a lot we had to give up to get him, but this fits us perfectly. … Kudos to the front office to swing this.”
