Rafael Devers is going back to Boston, at least inside one Red Sox podcast’s imagination, in a proposed reunion that would cost the club close to $200 million.
The pitch, floated on a recent episode of WEEI’s “Play Tessie” podcast, brings back the slugger the Red Sox shipped out just over a year ago, and reopens every old wound that time was supposed to close.
Co-host Sammy James’ version of the Devers reacquisition deal sends outfielder Masataka Yoshida and his contract, rookie left-hander Jake Bennett â who has won his last three starts going at least seven innings in each â and Rule 5-eligible prospect Miguel Bleis to San Francisco, with Boston also absorbing the $199.5 million left on the controversial San Francisco first baseman’s deal. Devers returns to a lineup that, according to the podcast’s hosts, has no better fit at designated hitter anywhere in the sport.
Rafael Devers Trade Pitch Splits Podcast Hosts
“Is there anyone right now who would fit better in the DH spot currently than Rafael Devers? I would say no,” co-host Nat “Gordo” Gordon said on the show, framing Devers as one of roughly five players who solve a specific need for any contender.
Pat “Dr. Pat” Brown, the third “Play Tessie” host, argued the Giants would jump at the chance to dump Devers’ massive contract. San Francisco unloads the back half of a nine-figure contract, and Boston gets its former face-of-the-franchise bat back at DH or the occasional first-base fill-in.
On the other hand, the podcast hosts conceded that the relationship between Devers and Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow may be too damaged to fix, joking that the sides “hate” each other and that no version of this front office says yes to any trade that puts Devers back into a Red Sox uniform. The whole exercise, by the hosts’ own admission, is speculative. Wildly so. No actual trade talks have surfaced.
Devers’ Rocky Run Since Leaving Boston
Devers hit .272 with a .401 on-base percentage, 15 home runs and 58 RBI over 73 games with the Red Sox before Boston traded him to San Francisco last June, a deal that followed a public standoff over moving off third base following the acquisition of Alex Bregman and later refusing to even take ground balls at first base after a season-ending injury to Triston Casas. The Giants installed him at first base anyway.
His production has cooled since. Devers is batting .249 with an .799 OPS, 19 homers and 52 RBI through 89 games this season, according to FOX Sports‘ player tracker, a recent hot streak pulling his numbers up from a rougher spring. San Francisco has struggled around him, sitting 19½ games out in the National League West, and 10½ behind the third National League Wild Card slot.
Drama followed Devers west. He waved off a pinch runner and avoided his teammates in the dugout during a June 21 loss to Miami, a moment manager Tony Vitello downplayed afterward but that drew sharp criticism from MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, who called it “basically insubordination” on air.
Devers signed his 10-year, $313.5 million extension with Boston in January 2023, and the Giants absorbed the remainder when they acquired him, a commitment pegged near $225 million over the next seven seasons. Whether that number is closer to $199.5 million, as the podcast proposal figures it, or higher, any team absorbing it takes on one of the largest financial commitments in baseball through 2033.
Nothing suggests the Red Sox and Giants are talking. But the podcast proposal taps into an appetite among Boston fans still wrestling with the fallout from last summer’s trade, even as the bad blood that ended Devers’ first stint in Boston shows no sign of thawing.
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