In June of 2025, the Boston Red Sox shocked the baseball community by trading superstar infielder/DH Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. The Sox dealt Devers, and the remainder of his $250-million-ish salary, to the Giants for pitcher Jordan Hicks, pitcher Kyle Harrison and highly-touted prospect James Tibbs III, as well as prospect Jose Bello.

The Red Sox then dealt Tibbs to the Los Angeles Dodgers for less than a half season of Dustin May, who struggled and then left in free agency. On Sunday, they traded Hicks, and $8 million of his contract to the Chicago White Sox.

Essentially, the Red Sox salary dumped their best offensive player and have almost nothing to show for it.

That's a rough look for Boston, who has been looking for additional offensive help all winter.

The Red Sox mismanaged the Devers situation from the outset of the 2025 offseason. According to reports, they told him they weren't going to look for additional third base help, then didn't consult him when they backtracked and signed Alex Bregman.

Then they signed Bregman, moved him to third and Devers to DH. Devers wasn't happy about it, understandably. Of course, he could have handled things better and helped the team out more when Triston Casas got injured by moving to first base, but he refused, still upset by what had happened over the winter.

So the Sox moved on from a guy who was just 28 years old and already a three-time All-Star with three 30 home run seasons under his belt. It was almost unfathomable at the time, and it remains unfathomable that the group has nothing to show for it.

A former top prospect, Harrison is still an intriguing lefty who went 1-1 with a 4.04 ERA in 11 games last season. While he is intriguing, the Red Sox don't have any real room for him.

Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Brayan Bello, Johan Oviedo and Ranger Suarez appear to be the starting rotation. Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford are all additional starting options. Harrison is on the outside-looking-in of that group, and he figures to be outside on the bullpen competition as well.

He's only 24 so there's room for him to grow, but will it be in Boston?

It's a little too simplistic, but essentially, the Red Sox traded half of Devers' contract for 2025. He was set to make just over $15 million last season, which means the Red Sox' shed about $7.5 million. He's due $27 million this season, which means the Red Sox' shed all $27 million. So, that's $34.5 million free, and the team lost the salaries of May, Lucas Giolito, Rob Refsnyder and Bregman this offseason. All in all, the Red Sox had about $100 million to play with this winter.

Arbitration increases take up some of that, and Crochet's uber extension ($24.5 million) kicks in, as does $7.5 million to Suarez and some money for Gray and Contreras. But no matter how you slice it, the Red Sox have plenty of additional money to spend and they haven't, upsetting some fans who wanted to see all the Devers savings re-invested.

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