Red Sox announce full trade return for Rafael Devers and Yankees fans are in stitches

It was funny enough when the Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers right after they swept the New York Yankees to fully kill the vibes. It was even funnier when they officially announced the package they received in return from the San Francisco Giants.

San Fran sent Kyle Harrison (LHP), Jordan Hicks (RHP), James Tibbs III (prospect OF) and Jose Bello (prospect RHP) to the Red Sox in exchange for Devers and the remaining $250 million on his contract. Zero marquee names that can contribute to the team right now.

Upon his arrival, the Red Sox optioned Harrison to Triple-A despite the fact they need pitching depth/help at the big league level. Hicks is currently injured (and has a 6.47 ERA and 1.54 WHIP in 13 games this year). James Tibbs III is now the Sox's No. 6 prospect, but he's not in Baseball America's top 100. Jose Bello isn't in the team's top 30.

What exactly did Craig Breslow do here? He told reporters on Monday night that he thinks the Red Sox will be better without Devers, which was crazy enough, but he seemed to have doubled down in a sense because he got nothing in return to even replace Devers in the aggregate (there is no reasonable one-for-one swap for him).

This might actually be worse than the Mookie Betts trade solely because the Sox, at the time, were trading one year of Betts. They are trading 8.5 years of Devers to the Giants, which include at least five prime seasons of 30-homer, 100-RBI power.

Yankees fans are laughing at Red Sox return package for Rafael Devers

Not to mention, Devers murdered the Yankees. He was the second coming of David Ortiz. And the Red Sox ruined this relationship, only to not shop him around and take one of the first trade offers that were presented to them. Reports suggested there was another offer on the table, but John Henry declined it because it required the Red Sox to eat some money.

Recently, both the Red Sox front office and Devers said the discord was in the past and they were moving on for the better. Then, out of nowhere, the Red Sox parted with their best asset at his peak and once again took a lesser return for the sake of absorbing no money. Back in 2020 when the Mookie Betts, they attached David Price's remaining money to the deal and were content with acquiring an inferior prospect package.

How did that work out? Jeter Downs never even panned out as a prospect and was gone incredibly fast. Alex Verdugo was not good and he's been gone for two years now. Connor Wong is the last remaining piece and his job is being taken by Carlos Narvaez (ugh, yes, a Yankees gift).

But the Red Sox are going nowhere fast, relying on a fleet of inexperienced players to all pan out at the same time and reverse their fortunes. And this is the third-most valuable franchise in the sport we're talking about.

At this point, all the Red Sox can hang their hat on is winning on tainted World Series and having the Yankees' number since 2014. And that's not good enough for a franchise with expectations similar to those that are the best in the sport.