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The elephant in the baseball room is the blockbuster deal that hit the tradewaves on Sunday night.
The Boston Red Sox, mired in 4th place in the American League Central with a 37-36 record, dealt star 3B/DH/not-1B Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants for a package containing pitchers Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, and Jose Bello along with outfield prospect James Tibbs III – the 13th overall pick in last summer’s MLB Draft. The baseball crew at The Athletic broke down the deal in great detail, noting that the remaining $250 million on Devers’ contract will also be going to the Giants in full.
It’s a stunning development in any year, Devers being a 3-time All Star and former Silver Slugger Award winner sporting a 155 OPS+ this season at the prime age of 28. It’s particularly stunning this year, though, because a) it’s the Sox dealing away the best player in the deal despite being 0.5 games out of a Wild Card spot and b) because it’s only June 16th, some six weeks away from the actual trade deadline.
Devers and the Red Sox had put one another in a pickle with their should-he/shant-he position switches since the signing of Alex Bregman. Clearly there was a disconnect there, and the Giants – themselves 41-31 and in serious pursuit of a playoff run – jumped in and pounced.
So, what the hell does this have to do with the Cincinnati Reds?
Well, the timing of it is important – teams are showing that they’re already willing to make deals instead of waiting for another month should the right player become available. That means any respite Nick Krall and Co. might have assumed would be in place through June is no longer there, as every team out there who may have considered a move for Devers this summer is now searching for something elsewhere.
Beyond that, though, is that it’s an example of two clubs who are actually trying to win games in 2025 dealing off their big league roster for pieces that better fit that chance. In other words, this is not a classic rebuilding club sells star for prospects move – it’s a move of competitive advantage. The Reds, despite their flaws, are an above .500 club with playoff aspirations and a relative wealth of starting pitching, yet they still need pieces in other parts of the roster to be augmented to truly be rounded out.
Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
How the Reds manage a starting rotation with options like Nick Martinez and Wade Miley within it as Hunter Greene nears his return is worth watching. Depth is great, for sure, but with nobody in that six-man group really being an option waiting to happen, the Reds may find themselves in a situation sooner than later where they get the opportunity to move one on for something else that’s big league tangible, like a lockdown reliever or a corner outfielder with functioning hamstrings.
Trade season, either way, has officially begun.
Speaking of which, Boston dealt Brian Van Belle to the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend, too. Cincinnati sent cash considerations the opposite way to Boston, who had DFA’d the RHP earlier in the week. Van Belle was subsequently optioned to AAA Louisville where he’ll serve as precisely the kind of pitching depth that might prompt the Reds to consider the moves I detailed in the above paragraphs (should the right offer come around). Boston, obviously, needed some 40-man roster space for the eventual Devers move, and this helped facilitate it.
Over at The Athletic, Leatherpants outlined 20 things he’s hearing as trade season heats up. None of it is particularly specific to the Reds, though there are definitely several tidbits that could well be Reds-related on the opposite end of any trade without squinting too much.
The Reds reportedly explored extending Elly De La Cruz at some point in the last two-plus years, but obviously that never materialized. The gang at MLB Trade Rumors helped contextualize that based off a Krall interview on MLB Network’s “The Front Office,” though it’s hard to truly get a sense of whether the two sides were ever really close. It’s nice to think about, since it’s nice to think about being able to root for Elly in a Reds uniform for more than the next couple of years, but at this point – with Elly roaring hot once again – I wonder if the Reds have already seen that opportunity blow past the willingness of their own frugal budgets.
Finally, Austin Hays isn’t nearly as close to a return to the Reds as it seemed he’d be when initially shut down at the end of May. It seems that pesky bone bruise he suffered was still bothering him enough to be shut down from running altogether last week, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed. He’s a big part of this offense when right, and figuring out if he’ll ever be healthy enough to play that big part in 2025 will be perhaps the single biggest decision facing Krall this summer, as upgrading the corner OF options in Hays’ stead would be paramount if that’s what it comes to.