Yankees should be really thankful for Red Sox's franchise-altering Rafael Devers trade

Rafael Devers is a certified New York Yankees killer. More than 13 percent of his 235 career home runs have come against the Yanks. He's hit .350 with eight homers and 20 RBI off of Gerrit Cole alone. There's a reason Yankees fans were overjoyed when Boston traded Devers to the San Francisco Giants last summer.

It was a deal that looked dumb for the Red Sox when it happened (they didn't even shop him!), but it looks even worse now that Alex Bregman has also bolted. Devers' clubhouse tension with Boston — the germ that ultimately expanded into a full-blown panic by ownership — all began when the Red Sox prioritized Bregman over Raffy at third base.

When Bregman signed with the Chicago Cubs, Red Sox fans were rightfully furious until the team acquired Caleb Durbin (which was clearly a ploy to have this whole thing Yankees-coded in some capacity).

Whatever the case, the Devers drama and resulting departure never should have happened at all. Boston pushed aside its franchise superstar for a one-year rental of Bregman, and Yankees fans are still counting their lucky stars that it all went down. They know that if Boston had Devers in its lineup right now (as currently constructed), the Yankees would be in a lot of trouble heading into 2026.

Rafael Devers with the current Boston Red Sox would make for the most dangerous lineup in the AL East

Not to mention, Devers clearly isn't nearly as lethal with the Giants as he was with the Sox. Just this past weekend against New York, the slugger came up small in countless clutch moments and went 3-for-12 with four strikeouts, one double, zero homers, zero RBI and zero walks. With SF overall, he's hitting .236/.344/.455 across 93 games.

As for the Red Sox, they're 1-2 after some closely contested games in Cincinnati where an experienced and comfortable power bat could've made all the difference.

Imagine Devers in a lineup that already features Roman Anthony, Willson Contreras, Trevor Story, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Marcelo Mayer. That's a scary thought, and one that Red Sox fans are kicking themselves over. The Yankees, meanwhile, must be continually expressing relief that this lineup will never exist.

It's not that the Yankees don't have a stellar starting rotation (when healthy) to throw out there against epic Red Sox lineups (real and theoretical); it's that Boston has also assembled a strong rotation of its own, now that Ranger Suárez will star at the top of the rotation behind Garrett Crochet, with Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello, and talented depth rounding out the unit.

In a playoff series against Crochet and Suárez, the Yankees rotation's margin for error wouldn't be very large, which would be a lot to ask for against the Devers and Co. imaginary super-lineup described above. It's the kind of lineup that, if hot, would be capable of unnerving the best rotations in the sport. Even the Los Angeles Dodgers and their back-to-back reigning champion rotation would be secretly hoping to play someone other than the Red Sox in the World Series.

And to think that all John Henry, Craig Breslow, and the rest of Boston's leadership had to do with Devers was take a deep breath, let the clubhouse awkwardness run its course, and get to the offseason. At that point, they would have realized the importance of keeping Raffy in light of Bregman's uncertain future.

There's a lot of "What ifs?" here. We don't know for certain how Devers remaining with the team last season would have impacted Boston's record or playoff performance, or if the positive roster changes this offseason would have all come to pass. It's hard to argue that Devers' presence would have done anything to prevent the Red Sox from acquiring Gray, Suárez, and other starting pitching, as they've done (though surely John Henry would've thrown a minor stink about it, at the very least). The same can be said about the Contreras deal.

Trading Devers was simply a mistake; there's no other way to frame it. And it's a blunder that the Yankees will be benefitting from for at least the rest of this decade.