Why the Devers Trade now?

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Coincidence?? Liverpool committing to spending how much this summer? Linked to Devers trade?  Wiggy: "At least you don't have to worry about who is playing 1st anymore"

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00:00All right. Red Sox traded Raphael Devers and 603 text on the Subaru of New England text line for

00:09you, Curtis. And it says, shut up, Curtis, you fraud. A guy making $300 million wouldn't do what

00:17his boss wanted him to do. So he got traded. Good move by the Red Sox. I can tell right now you're

00:2380 years old. Good morning. Hopefully you're not driving too fast. We have some leads left,

00:28including this one from Courtney. Hey, Courtney. Hello. Good morning, everybody. Mine will be

00:32quick because Curtis did a great job with his lead, but I want to quote the great Maeve from

00:36Mobland. She said, follow the money. And let me read what the Liverpool Echo wrote as a headline on

00:44Friday. Liverpool have already committed to spending a potential $176 million this summer,

00:51the most they have ever spent in a single transfer window. But the Reds are only just

00:57getting started. For that to happen on Friday and for Raphael Devers to get traded with his entire

01:03salary on Sunday is a bit perfect. It's too perfect for John Henry to say, oh, it's just a coincidence.

01:12Liverpool has been playing great. They're coming off a parade season and that is where their attention

01:18is. They don't care about the Red Sox. They don't care about the Penguins. I think the Red Sox are

01:23probably third on their list of care, but all their focus is on Liverpool. It's too coincidental

01:28for there not to be any ties between where their money is going and the fact that Raphael Devers at

01:33the end of the day was about money. Okay. Courtney, thank you. Thank you. Good morning. All right.

01:37Good morning. So, I mean, I don't really know which direction to go in because there's so many avenues.

01:43Well, at least guess what? You don't have to worry about who's going to place first base no more.

01:47Now you got to figure out who's going to DH because Devers is no longer there. It's going

01:52to be interesting to see because it was crazy. After the game yesterday, when I got back to the

01:57crib, I just happened to throw it on ESPN and San Fran was playing and they were playing the

02:04Dodgers. So they were talking about Devers going to the Dodgers. It's going to be interesting to see

02:08to San Francisco, San Francisco. Yeah. But San Francisco is playing the Dodgers. Yeah. It'll be

02:13interesting to see what goes on with Devers because the third baseman that they have for

02:19the San Francisco Giants. Golden glove winner, locked down forever. Right. So Raphael Devers

02:24is not going to play any third base out there. Right. So is he going to be happy with just

02:29playing DH, which it seemed like he was pretty happy to be DH-ing here in Boston? He was?

02:35Well, I mean, initially he wasn't. Initially he wasn't. But then he bought in. The spin from you

02:41is unbelievable. No, no. But initially he wasn't. But you and Courtney, are you on the payroll for

02:47NFL Devers? No, no. And I've never gotten any merch, by the way, Sam. I'm willing. Abel and willing.

02:53But yes, he wasn't in the beginning. Then he bought in. And then everybody tries to tie it into the

02:58fact that then they wanted to move him to first base after he bought into DH. Which the whole

03:03first base thing I think is kind of like, I'm not buying it because Toro has been playing really

03:07good, not only in the field, but at the plate. So I don't really like seeing him going to San

03:14Francisco and being like, all right, if I don't have a chance to play third base, then he's going

03:19to be, you know, have a pissy attitude there. You, the Red Sox, could have handled this situation

03:24in the beginning from Breslow to Kennedy to Cora to Henry when you signed Bregman, but you didn't.

03:32I, it's just going to be interesting to watch him go out there, DH for San Fran, and you're

03:39going to now look at him and what he's able to do there and basically go. So we moved on

03:44from a guy because we weren't willing to, you know, all right, take maybe a little bit

03:50of a pissy attitude. So they were not willing to make exceptions for an exceptional player.

03:58Bingo. Um, which is what you always want organizations to do, which I have no problem

04:03with that when a guy's as productive and he's not really a clubhouse. Uh, I don't want to use

04:10cancer. I don't want to use disease clubhouse problem, right? So you kind of suck it up.

04:16He's still going to the plate and he's still raking. Baseball players are different. They

04:20have a, they can have, I can't say the word issy no more cause shine got in my ear. They can

04:25have bad attitudes and still go out there and play. Okay. Well that gets us to my lead

04:31and, and I understand that this may not be a popular opinion currently. Um, this hurts

04:38and it, it's, it says, I think that they at some point have decided that this team is maybe

04:47a wildcard team and they're, uh, they made the decision that, uh, whether it's, uh, mostly

04:54money or mostly attitude that they need to make a change. I will say that in the long run,

05:00even though it hurts right now, I think this may be the best, the best decision decision

05:05for this baseball team because of what you saw attitude wise from Raphael Devers. And you're

05:13saying that you just sit back and accept it and take it. Cause the guy is, uh, certainly

05:20one of the top five, if not, I mean, top 10, if not top five hitters in the game, but you're

05:26talking about a guy who called management out publicly who, uh, just a few weeks ago, yachted

05:36it out, uh, when, uh, you should be running it out to first base, uh, a guy who apparently

05:43was pissed because they didn't run the Alex Bregman decision by him first as if he runs

05:51the entire franchise. I just think that when you have somebody who is, when you have a team

05:58of younger guys, uh, and you have somebody who is unwilling to help out when you need

06:03it and display a, a general team attitude that, and you're committed to that player for eight

06:12years and a lot of money that you have to make a tough decision. And I think in the long

06:18run now, I, the one, uh, caveat I will give Curtis is there. They have to, they can't just

06:26take the savings on Raphael Devers and put it in their pocket. They got to invest going

06:31forward. But I think what evidence is there of that, that they're going to do that. They

06:37extended Garrett Crochet, right? That's not a free agent, but I'm saying that in, in terms

06:42of, they went out and got Alex Bregman, right? That was great. And that was a good signing

06:46that we praised, but that was three years, one 20. We're talking about a $300 million

06:50contract. Do you think this ownership group will give another $300 million contract?

06:55I am hopeful. I am hopeful. I don't know. I mean, if Curtis is right and is about the

07:01money, then they won't. The whole Juan Soto thing was just, you know, smoking mirrors to

07:07keep people happy. I don't know who the next big free agent shoot a drop. I know Shine brought

07:13up, uh, Paul Skeens, the kid from Pittsburgh, but they already have their hog in a picture.

07:18So who's, I'm just wants Olivia done to come along with him. Who's the next positional

07:23player that's going to be available? She would set back broadcasting if we had her on that

07:28the Red Sox could potentially be in on. Right. And then we won't know that until we see that

07:33next guy. But Greg and Wiggy, Wiggy, and I'm sorry, I got, I'm very frustrated today.

07:37Both things were important. The attitude was the most important part at the beginning.

07:41Cause if the attitude is good, we're not having this conversation. So you are right on that.

07:45However, the, the manner in which you are allowed, you allow yourself to tolerate

07:49a massive expenditure has shifted. Manny Ramirez was the best hitter I ever saw.

07:55And he was a donkey, but they tolerated it. And they won two world series because to them back

08:00then winning superseded everything else. That is no longer the case. And to make this trade,

08:06I know it'd been going on for weeks, the negotiations back and forth, when you have literally just

08:11turned your season around, you quit on it. Like what you quit on your season, not even halfway

08:20through. If it was an issue, whatever the issue was, has gotten much better. Was it getting worse

08:25or better guys better? So why, why do this now? What was the urgency? What was the need other than

08:31to get under the CBT? Like give me one reason you would do this. I 508 texter said that was a short

08:38list that I gave. I mean, I can come up with other things. Uh, you needed the guy Bregman

08:43got hurt. You needed him to play third base. He, that's what he was fighting about from the start.

08:49And then he wouldn't do it. Then Cassis went down. You needed him to play a few games at first. He

08:55wouldn't do it, but he dramatically went out there and started fielding ground balls and warmups

09:02at shortstop, like a giant middle finger F you to everybody. Like how about the middle finger of

09:08the home run that gave you the insurance to sweep the Yankees yesterday? So I, Greg, I understand what

09:13you're saying, but I don't think they looked at Devers in the organization and going, he's our best

09:19option at first base. I don't think they looked at that because the way Toro was playing, even the

09:24way Romy Gonzalez was playing in the field. I don't think they, they clearly didn't think he was the

09:28best option at third base because they had Bregman. And even when Bregman got hurt, I think they felt

09:33like Meyer might've been a better field or that he can move Toro there. I think they looked at

09:39Devers and said, we just want you to hit the baseball. And that's why they say initially moved

09:44to DH. I think John Henry went out there and said those exact things to him. Like we need you.

09:52We invested in you. We need you a little bit here. And I think he got a look back and,

09:58and maybe a no. And then they decided that they needed it to be out on him. And I get

10:04it. No, I get it. People are pissed about it. Well, if I'm Devers, I say I've needed you

10:09John Henry to invest in this team. Like you used to. And where have you been now? All of

10:13a sudden you're coming to Kansas city. I haven't seen your face in a year.

10:16You really believe. And Sam was there doing a knock, knock joke. It was levity. And this

10:22is, I don't know. This is where it's kind of hard for me to buy, to buy in that. They traded

10:27Devers because they got to a point where they're like, Oh, we can't take him telling

10:33us. No, he won't play first base no more in general, his attitude. All right. In general,

10:38overall, I get that. Yes. And I give them credit for having the nuts to do it. Like it's tough

10:45to part with somebody like that. But if you think it's going to affect your organization,

10:51which is full now of young guys, prospects who you want to understand the, like what

11:00team means, then I, I appreciate the fact that they're willing to do it. But I'll ask

11:06the question we always ask when it's other teams doing it. Did the Red Sox get better

11:09or worse after yesterday's trade? They got worse. Exactly. I mean, much worse. That's

11:14the issue. That's the issue that fans should have. When you look at this team, who cares if

11:19you don't agree with how Raphael Devers dealt with the situation at third base or first

11:23base, who cares about the fact that you think that maybe the Red Sox are overpaying for a

11:28DH? The only thing that you should care about is the fact that Raphael Devers got moved and

11:33then started producing really well for the Red Sox. And now he's no longer on your team.

11:37And he was grown talent within your organization. Do you think Cora was on board with the Devers

11:44trade? Hell no. No. Okay. I think it shows you who has all the power over there.

11:49So you think Breslow was on board or do you think this was... Did he sound like

11:53when we asked him about Raphael Devers on this show on Thursday, like he was on board with

11:59what was coming? I think so. I mean, I asked him about his feelings about Devers and he said,

12:04I'm going to keep that to myself. It's just the Red Sox should always be the team acquiring

12:11the overpaid problem, not trading it away. You have the ability here because you spend $60

12:17to park, $25 for a freaking crab roll at Fenway Park. It is offensive as a Boston sports fan

12:28to see what this ownership group has done, taking advantage of the people that spend their money

12:32for this team. There is zero excuse to make this trade now. The problem that existed was mostly fixed.

12:40You are playing your best baseball. Thanks in large part to Devers, the best player on your team.

12:47You sweep the Yankees. You're over 500. And before you fly out to the West Coast for a big nine game

12:54trip, you trade your best player, yank them off the plane, force them in a cab back to Fenway,

12:59just so you can get under the collective bargaining tax.

13:02See, if I'm going to like maybe go to your side of the street, Greg, which you could maybe talk me

13:09there, then I think the organization felt like, yeah, they're making a little bit of a run,

13:15but that's not really who we are. So we'll come down from off this giant high of taking two out of

13:24three from the Yankees in the first series and then sweeping them two out of three from Tampa.

13:29But that's not really who we are. We'll come back down to earth and the headache is not worth the

13:34problem for a team that isn't going anywhere in their opinion.

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