Red Sox reportedly deal Rafael Devers to Giants after position change dispute

Rafael Devers’ 2025 season has been defined by dominance at the plate and an extended dispute with the Boston Red Sox over his fielding position. Now, it will also be known for a blockbuster trade.

The San Francisco Giants have acquired Devers in a trade that will send pitchers Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and more back to Boston, according to Fansided’s Robert Murray and CBS Sports’ Julian McWilliams.

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The Giants have reportedly agreed to take on all of Devers’ current contract, which will pay him $254.5 million over the next eight seasons after this one. Currently slotted as a designated hitter, Devers was enjoying one of the best seasons of his career at the plate, hitting .271/.400/.494 and leading the league in walks with 55.

Devers did not demand a trade, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

The move ends a nine-season tenure in Boston for Devers, who was part of the club’s 2018 World Series team and earned three All-Star nods. He signed the largest contract in franchise history in 2023 at $313.5 million and was the last remaining member of that 2018 team.

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Now he is on the way out, and not exactly under the happiest circumstances.

Rafael Devers had major issues with Red Sox front office

The issues began when the Red Sox signed former Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract in free agency.

Before 2025, Devers spent his entire career at third base. Typically, a player who has starred for an organization for years and is under contract for many more years would be the one who gets to keep his position, but the uncomfortable truth was that Bregman, a Gold Glover, is far better at playing third base than Devers, who rarely graded as a positive at the hot corner in the best of times.

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Devers made very clear he was not happy with being asked to cede his position, but eventually conceded in spring training that he would be fine serving as Boston’s DH. That seemed to be the end of it, until Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas ruptured his patellar tendon in May.

There was some thought that Devers could make the common transition from third base to first base to help his team cover a position where they had few other palatable options. The Boston front office seemed to think so, approaching Devers about a position change many observers assumed was inevitable, even without Bregman.

Devers responded by going scorched earth, questioning the wisdom of the move with reporters, accusing the team of lying to him and saying he didn’t understand the decisions general manager Craig Breslow was making. The situation got bad enough that team owner John Henry flew out to Kansas City to meet with Devers on the road, where it was agreed Devers would stay at DH.

We now know that wasn’t the end of it. On a related note, the Giants are scheduled to face the Red Sox in a series next weekend.

Rafael Devers still won’t play third base for the Giants

You would assume a player disgruntled over a position change would be moving back to his preferred position after a trade, but the punchline here is that Devers won’t be playing third base for the Giants either.

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The Giants have an even better third baseman in five-time Gold Glover Matt Chapman, who signed a six-year, $151 million extension with San Francisco last year. Barring another move, the pair will be teammates for at least another half-decade.

Chapman is currently on the injured list with right hand inflammation and is reportedly due back in the first half, but it remains to be seen if Devers even makes the move back to third in the short term. He stayed at DH when Bregman hit the IL in Boston.

Despite that, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports Devers is happy with the move. This whole thing might have been about more than a position change.

Giants get much-needed bat with Rafael Devers

Boston’s discomfort will be the Giants’ gain. Currently in second place in the NL West at 41-30, the Giants boast one of the best pitching staffs in baseball — and a mediocre offense.

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The Giants entered Sunday ranking 20th in MLB by wRC+, which evaluates offensive contributions while correcting for the pitcher-friendly Oracle Park.

Devers could either stay the course at designated hitter or finally give first base a try, but either way he gives the Giants a strong middle-of-the-order bat that can slot in among Chapman, Willy Adames, Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski. It’s worth wondering how Devers’ offensive profile will work at Oracle Park, which famously suppresses left-handed hitters like him, but talents like him are rarely available like this.

Another franchise talent leaves Boston

Whatever the circumstances of Devers’ exit, it can’t be ignored that another franchise talent is exiting the Red Sox.

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In fact, the NL West is now a constellation of former Red Sox stars. The Giants have Devers. The Los Angeles Dodgers have Mookie Betts, whom the Red Sox traded in 2020 in a now-infamous deal spurred by their refusal to pay him. The San Diego Padres have Xander Bogaerts, who left in free agency for an 11-year, $280 million deal two winters ago. Even the Arizona Diamondbacks have starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez.

There’s also Chris Sale, who won a Cy Young Award with the Atlanta Braves last year.

The post-Red Sox careers of those players have been varied, but it’s a franchise-defining trend right now. Their roster has mostly turned over from even their last playoff team in 2021, largely because the team has made a conscious decision not to pay its biggest names.

Boston bet big on winning again this season with the Bregman deal and the trade for starting pitcher Garrett Whitlock, but that bet is now enormously contingent on its young prospects like Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony turning into stars, quickly.