OBF: We’ve seen the last Thunderball off Rafael Devers’ bat
Ian Fleming gave us James Bond. The Raffy Devers Salary Dump left the Red Sox fans shaken and stirred. The OG Bond Villain was Auric Goldfinger. In the eponymous novel and movie, Goldfinger voiced …
Ian Fleming gave us James Bond.
The Raffy Devers Salary Dump left the Red Sox fans shaken and stirred.
The OG Bond Villain was Auric Goldfinger. In the eponymous novel and movie, Goldfinger voiced his frustration at Bond’s ability to ruin his day.
“Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: ‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action’.”
Mookie Betts.
Xander Bogaerts.
Raffy Devers.
“Enemy action.”
“Goldfinger,” meet “Middle Finger.”
Boston’s own Bond Villain, John Henry, has made it undeniably clear that the Red Sox have forever moved away from spending to win.
Source: Math.
The opportunity to erase $254 million owed Devers off the books was simply too tempting. Especially with Devers helping himself out the door.
There are too many priorities elsewhere: Liverpool, an NBA expansion franchise, the PGA Tour, all that real estate around Fenway Park.
The world is not enough.
Red Sox fans get to die another day.
The Red Sox have the 19th largest MLB payroll (via Spotrac). They spend less than Arizona, Seattle, or Minnesota.
Adjusted for inflation, the Post-Devers-Salary-Dump payroll of the Red Sox is now 41.6% lower than it was in 2019, 15.4% lower than it was in 2021, and 21.2% lower than it was in 2022. It is within 1% of what the team spent in 2024 and ’25.
Welcome to Pittsfield.
Alex Bregman’s addition is now a net zero when it comes to payroll this season – give or take a few million. Spend here. Cut there.
And that’s assuming Bregman doesn’t opt out after this season.
Why wouldn’t he bail after the Red Sox dumped their most effective and potent bat for a bag of used batting practice balls and 2 Torpedo bats to be named later?
Devers was 3rd in the majors in RBI, 12th in OPS, and 12th in runs scored before the Red Sox left his bat in San Francisco.
He’s launched more home runs against the Bronx Bombers than any current MLB player. So much for defeating the Evil Empire.
The Ghost of Larry Lucchino is doing 3500 RPM.
Imagine the size of the cigar Henry will alight aboard the “Elysian” once Bregman bails this winter.
Another $31,705,000 off the books.
“It’s expensive to have baseball players,” Henry famously said 9 days after extending Devers for 10 years and $313.5 million.
Diamonds are forever. All-Stars not so much.
Monday, “Middle Finger” sent his henchmen – Craig “OddJob” Breslow, and Sam “No. 2” Kennedy – to detoxify the fallout from Devers’ departure.
Kennedy and Breslow insist this was a “baseball trade” and not simply payroll being pared. Yet neither would commit to spending or “reinvesting” the $254 million saved by dealing Devers on top-tier players this season, or in the future.
The issue was one of “alignment” between Devers and that of the Red Sox organization. Kennedy and Breslow dropped the word “alignment” so many times their Zoom turned into a free ad for Town Fair Tire.
The Joe Isuzu Twins insist the Red Sox will have a better record without Devers, say the return from the Giants was the best deal possible, and vow the team is still committed to winning this year.
Yet after getting nothing of substance baseball-wise in return, the Red Sox pulled Devers off the team plane like he was a terrorist and put him in a cab back to Fenway Park.
An issue of “logistics,” Breslow said.
Devers was the “Face Of The Red Sox.”
He’s been replaced by Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson.
This was the most Red Soxian transaction in team history.
A true Five Tool disaster.
Big Star. Zero return. Terrible Timing. Fan Outrage. Bad Optics.
Babe Ruth was sold in the dead of winter, while the world was still reeling from a pandemic and a World War.
The Red Sox lost Carlton Fisk because of front office incompetence.
Sparkly Lyle and Jeff Bagwell were simply bad trades.
Betts and Bogaerts were let go before the Red Sox ever wrote the big check.
Sure, the Red Sox paid Chris Sale $16 million last season to win the NL Pitching Triple Crown for Atlanta. But intelligent people on all sides agreed it wasn’t working for Sale in Boston.
If only the Red Sox had gotten peanuts in return.
Sometimes there’s a silver lining. Carlos Narváez is the illegitimate son of the Betts deal. The last remaining player Boston received for Betts – Connor Wong – was so ineffective behind the plate Boston needed another catcher. The Yankees happily obliged.
The Father’s Day Massacre is Red Sox dysfunction in 5D IMAX. Devers was deported after a wondrous sweep of the Yankees that left Fenway Park in delirium. And right before the Red Sox slipped out of the town on the longest North American road trip in the majors this season (6,113.9 miles). They return to Fenway Park on June 27.
By then, the Devers Smear Campaign will have convinced you that Raffy shot JFK, hates puppies, and robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Devers got the big contract. He was “Little Papi.” The Franchise. The Foundation. His biggest sin was that he didn’t want to switch positions for the second time in one season. Whatever childish faults he exhibited were exacerbated by how poorly the Red Sox front office handled this situation starting in the offseason.
Finally, Devers was the last remaining player from the last Red Sox team to win a World Series.
And will be for a very long time.
(Contact: @BillSperos and @RealOBF on X or at bsperos1@gmail.com)
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