I remain amazed how few MLB franchises have a person in between the owner and the chief baseball executive who is tasked with keeping everybody rowing in the same direction in the very rough waters of trying to win a championship.
I am thinking of an old friend as I write this: the late Larry Lucchino, who passed away last year after a brilliant and long career as a baseball executive. He put together the group that bought the Boston Red Sox for $380 million in 2002. The Red Sox had not won a World Series since 1918 prior to that.
Lucchino was the team president for Red Sox owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner from 2002-2015. The Red Sox won three World Series during that time. Lucchino wasn’t perfect. He liked to butt his nose into every aspect of the club’s operations. That got him in trouble with Theo Epstein, who bristled at Lucchino’s efforts to control baseball decisions.
Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski, Chaim Bloom and now Craig Breslow have all had control over baseball operations in Boston since Epstein moved on to the Cubs following the 2011 season. All are smart and talented. Cherington (Pirates), Bloom (Cardinals) and Dombrowski (Phillies) have gone on to run other teams, while Breslow is the current leader of the Red Sox.
While it’s too early to fully judge Breslow, the stunning midseason trade of Rafael Devers, in the second year of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract, stems from Breslow’s botched handling of the free-agent pursuit of Alex Bregman, who signed a three-year, $120 million deal with Boston this past offseason.
Devers was dealt to the San Francisco Giants on June 15 for pitchers Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Jose Bello and outfielder James Tibbs III. The Giants will pick up all of the roughly $250 million left on Devers’ deal.
For the Giants’ part, they have plenty of money in their coffers but have been unable to lure the really big fish in recent years. They tried with Aaron Judge and missed out. Carlos Correa was about to sign with the Giants before health concerns caused the team to back out. The Devers acquisition is effectively a monster free-agent signing.
This deal is a reflection of the power of Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey. He had the trust of ownership to push all his chips on the table to acquire Devers and deliver a major statement to the rest of a very tough division, which includes the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, let a major talent slip through their fingers. Why? Because they quite simply insulted him, introducing what type of teammate he chose to be in Boston in 2025.
It started in February, when the Red Sox signed Bregman to play third base in place of Devers. Devers became obstinate about moving off of third until he was told he’d be the designated hitter. Then first baseman Tristan Casas ruptured his left patellar tendon in early May, causing the club to talk to Devers about a position shift to first base. Devers balked at the move to first.
With Casas out and Devers refusing to play first base, Henry and Breslow flew to Kansas City for a sit-down with the player and manager Alex Cora on May 9. Devers again refused to play first base.
In the meantime, Devers was heating up at the plate. He had missed much of spring training with soreness in his shoulders, then struck out in 15 of his first 23 plate appearances during the regular season. Since then, he is hitting .292/.418/.542 with 15 home runs.
It gets more complicated. Because they were struggling until recently, the Red Sox elected to bring up No. 1 overall prospect Roman Anthony and sit Wilyer Abreu. Bregman’s absence (due to a quad injury) and Devers’ unwillingness to play first base placed even more pressure on Anthony to produce.
Clearly, this situation moved from a pissed-off player to a pissed-off owner — all because the club lacked proper oversight of how the baseball side was conducting business.
Breslow may very well survive this, but, his lack of communication with a star player was unconscionable under these circumstances. Bregman should have been told he’d be the one to play first base if Devers wasn’t going to be consulted first.
Sure, Bregman is the better defender at third base, but is he so much better that it’s worth the risk of upsetting the franchise player who is signed for $313.5 million? Does that make any sense to you?
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox