Hi Everyone —
So with my book deadline bearing down — TWO WEEKS AWAY — my plan was to write just one post this week, a massive and rambling thing about a single at-bat from Friday night that will include all sorts of historical perspective, Babe Ruth, Patsy Tebeau, a day in Cocoa, Fla., that changed baseball and so on. That will run on Wednesday, and I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
Then the bleepin’ Red Sox had to go and trade Rafael Devers.
So, yeah, I’ve got to write about that too.
A couple of quick things first:
1) The city of Las Vegas has scheduled a quote-unquote “groundbreaking” for the A’s new stadium next week, and that’s just peachy keen except for there appears to be a more than $1 billion deficit (and rising) between what you might call “money they have” and “money needed to build a new stadium.”
Hey, I failed out of accounting in college, but that seems like a potential wrinkle.
2) We’ve always had great respect for Clayton Kershaw — for his pitching and for his genuine faith. That said, what he did Friday night was deeply disappointing.
It was LGBTQ+ Pride Night, and “to celebrate the vibrant culture and tradition of the LGBTQ community,” the Dodgers wore special caps with the LA in rainbow colors. Kershaw took a silver Sharpie and wrote in “Gen 9:12-16” on his cap.
That refers to the bible verse where God tells Noah after the flood: “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Which, yes, we respect Kershaw’s right to promote his faith. But, it’s important to understand two things about the verse and the moment. First, it’s well known that the specific bible verse he wrote down has been used repeatedly by anti-LGBTQ+ groups to condemn the gay community and, in their words, reclaim the rainbow for God.
Second, whether or not that was Kershaw’s intent, he was unmistakably making the night about himself. He didn’t have to write anything on his cap. A couple of years ago, you no doubt remember, he loudly protested the Dodgers honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on Pride Night, but he went way out of his way to say it had nothing at all to do with the LGBTQ+ community. No. He loved everybody. He was merely standing up against the Sisters specifically because they made fun of religion. “It’s not an LGBT issue,” he insisted repeatedly.
Right. Two years later, he couldn’t just wear the cap on Pride Night and be quietly tolerant. No. He had to scribble in his bible verse as if to say, “You can have your Pride Night, but I’m wearing the cap for my own reasons.”
Maybe as a Christian, he could have humbly written Romans 2:1 on there, instead:
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
What happened to the Boston Red Sox?
The Boston Red Sox just traded Rafael Devers — their franchise player, their brightest star, their highest-paid player ever — to the Giants, and it brings me back to a question that has been haunting me for a few years now:
Why did the Red Sox stop being the Red Sox?
For 15 or so years — from maybe 2003 to about 2018 — the Boston Red Sox were pretty much the model franchise in baseball. I mean, yes, of course, they had their ups and downs, their starts and stops, their parades and their chicken and beer controversies.
But they were always pointed toward the North Star, right? They were always focused on not just winning but winning championships. They hired the best of the best, and they built incredible minor league systems, and they developed amazing players — Mookie! Xander! Pedroia! Lester! — and they smartly blended analytics and new thinking (Theo Epstein! Bill James!) with classic baseball know-how (Terry Francona! Dave Dombrowski!) and they won four World Series, and they spent money liberally and, for the most part, wisely.
There was a sense of purpose, and that purpose was “We’re the Boston Red Sox, and we are making up for the 80-some years of heartbreak we inflicted on New England.”
This culminated in the magical 2018 season, when Boston won 108 games, breezed through the postseason, and rolled over the Dodgers in the World Series.
It seems pretty obvious now that something changed at the end of that season … the Red Sox apparently felt like they had finished the race, and won enough, and mission accomplished. The whole vibe of the organization changed. They canned Dombrowski 10 months after the World Series parade. They got rid of manager Alex Cora after he was connected to the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal (the Red Sox were simultaneously dealing with their own sign-stealing scandal). Then they brought him back.
Oh, yeah, you might remember that they also traded the incomparable Mookie Betts.
In September of 2020 — with COVID wrecking everything and the Red Sox in last place — the team reached their new North Star: They were able to reset their competitive balance tax, which meant that owner John Henry and his ilk could keep more of the money!
Wow! A competitive balance tax reset! This called for a celebration!
What in the hell happened to the Red Sox? And why? In 2018, they had the highest payroll in baseball. By 2023, they shaved off $100 million. They had enough talent left in 2021 to reach the playoffs, and shortly after that, they let their best player, Xander Bogaerts, go elsewhere in free agency. Red Sox fans desperate to believe in their team, talked about how this was actually a good thing because Bogaerts was not a great defensive shortstop, and he was turning 30, and signing him long-term wasn’t a good investment.
They were probably right on a financial level. Bogaerts has not played well in San Diego.
On an emotional level, though, it was just another cold and calculated money move. The Red Sox seemed downright relieved when Bogaerts became a free agent because that meant they could cut his salary from the budget and then shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, what else could we do?”
All of which brings us to Rafael Devers. In January of 2023 — barely a month after Bogaerts signed with the Padres — the Red Sox signed Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million deal. It was a happy day! Devers had received MVP votes each of the previous two seasons, he loved Boston, Boston loved him, and he had just turned 25.
“He’s not just a star,” Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom said. “He’s our star.”
Oh, yes, it was a love fest. Devers deferred a bunch of the money to help the club. The club talked about Devers being the face of the franchise. In the stories about the signing, reporters pointed out that if he played out his contract in Boston, he would be with the Red Sox for SEVENTEEN YEARS, trailing only Carl Yastrzemski, Dwight Evans and Ted Williams.
It was like the Red Sox were saying: “See! We’re still the Boston Red Sox!”
Bloom was canned not long after that, because as team president Sam Kennedy said, “We’re aiming for World Series Championships. That’s it. That’s the aim. That’s the goal. That’s why we’re here.”
Great! This offseason, the Red Sox desperately wanted a right-handed bat. They settled on a good one in Alex Bregman. Unfortunately, Bregman played third base, the same position as face-of-the-franchise Rafael Devers. Bregman publicly announced that he would be happy to move to second base to accommodate Devers. But that wasn’t the Red Sox’s plan.
What was their plan? Well, I have a crackpot theory. First, though, I’ll give you what I think was the two-part public plan:
Part 1: For Bregman to play third because he’s much better at it than Devers.
Part 2: For Devers to willingly and quietly move to DH because they pay him a lot of money to shut up and do what he’s told.
Devers didn’t like Part 2 of the plan. I don’t know what the Red Sox said to Devers before or right after the signing, but my suspicion is that they said nothing at all. My suspicion is that they didn’t feel the need to say anything because while Devers may be the face of the franchise and whatnot, he’s also an employee. When Devers complained about the move and said he loved playing third base, and said he was promised third base when he signed with the team, he was roundly mocked for his selfishness and naivete. Imagine believing what a former employee had told him.
The Red Sox told him to put away his glove and just hit baseballs.
Devers was so obviously wrecked by the whole thing that he spent the first month of the season striking out. But then, he found his rhythm and started smashing baseballs very hard as he is wont to do, and then Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas got hurt, and the Red Sox went to Devers about retrieving that old glove and playing a position he’s never played before.
When Devers complained about that, he was roundly mocked for not being a team player.
And then the Red Sox traded away the face of the franchise to the Giants, suddenly and for a questionable return. On the way out the door, the Red Sox anonymously sniped at Devers because of course they did:
PerRed Sox sources: the team's feeling was that a $313.5M contract comes with responsibilities to do what is right for the team and that Devers did not live up to those responsibilities. They had enough and they traded him.
— Peter Abraham (@peteabeglobe.bsky.social) 2025-06-15T23:06:18.207Z
And now I’ll give you my crackpot theory.
I think the Red Sox were looking for a way to get out from under the Devers contract the whole time. I don’t think the new Red Sox regime ever liked Devers, and I don’t think this organization wants to spend real money on players. This move fits right in with trading Mookie (“He wasn’t going to sign with us anyway!”) and letting Xander roam (“It’s not smart to spend that much money on a 30-year-old shortstop”). Three stars. Three exits. Hundreds of millions saved!
In my mind, they KNEW that Devers would be furious about being moved to DH. They knew EXACTLY what promises had been made by the organization. They were more than happy to let him hang himself in the court of public opinion by saying so. I think they wanted all along to get rid of Devers and dump that salary … and if they got a couple of prospects they could hype in the process, all the better.
I think this is a Red Sox reset all over again.
And let me be clear: I’m not saying that Rafael Devers has covered himself in glory in this process. Of course, he has not. He’s a proud athlete, and he’s felt disrespected, and he’s acted that way. I don’t know how it’s going to work out for him in that hitter’s nightmare of a ballpark in San Francisco.
But to me, this whole thing has the fingerprints of an organization that has lost its way. The Red Sox still have a lot of good young players and an ace, and they just swept the Yankees. They could develop into a good team. But the days of them being the mighty Red Sox, envy of the baseball world, well, those days are over.
Kathleen’s Korner
Artist @henryxpieces shared this incredible painting of Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. for Father’s Day.
The ever-timely Nick Castellanos hit a Father’s Day grand slam.
Over in AUSL, Baylee Klingler of Blaze hit the league’s first grand slam.
Bruce the Bat Dog made his MLB debut for the Nationals. Here’s a recap of his big day.
