PHOENIX —The primary characters of the Boston Red Sox’s 2025 regular season have been Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers.

Devers was the incumbent third baseman in the second year of a 10-year, $330 million contract. Bregman was a free agent, one of Major League Baseball’s premier third basemen in his nine seasons playing for the Houston Astros.

The New York Yankees needed a third baseman this offseason, but never made an offer to Bregman.

When the Red Sox signed Bregman before the 2025 season to a three-year, $120 million contract that had a $5 million signing bonus and player opt-outs prior to the 2026 and 2027 seasons, it led to a falling out between Devers and Red Sox management. The third baseman wasn’t pleased with his move to DH, and he subsequently refused to try playing first base. He was traded to the San Francisco Giants on June 15, where he’s gladly played all three positions.

The Giants, after some major struggles, are on the periphery of the National League Wild Card race. The Red Sox are at 43-28 since trading Devers, and barring a complete collapse, they will likely clinch an American League Wild Card berth and a probable first-round best-of-three series against the rival Yankees.

“We’ve been playing better baseball since the trade, even executing better,” Bregman said this weekend at Chase Field where the Red Sox lost two out of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks. “Obviously [Devers is] an incredible player. Those moves are out of our hands. We weren’t playing well when he was around earlier in the year.”

Bregman is sure to exercise the opt-out that would pay him $31.7 million next season for luxury tax purposes and try the market again as a free agent unshackled by a qualifying offer.  He also missed nearly two months because of a right quad strain.

The Bregman signing earlier this year, coming on the eve of spring training, caused all these dominos to tumble. By the trade deadline, the Yanks were so desperate for a third baseman they acquired light-hitting but good-fielding Ryan McMahon in a trade with the Colorado Rockies and moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, releasing veteran DJ LeMahieu with $15 million left on his contract, according to Spotrac.

By mid-June, the Red Sox were so fed up with Devers they traded him to the Giants for four players who have had little to no impact. 

Since the June trade, the Red Sox have played themselves back into playoff position. That’s great for the short term, but what happens when Bregman opts out, and the team is left without Bregman and Devers?

Is this any way to run a baseball team?

“There were some steps that weren’t taken the right way according to Rafi,” Torey Lovullo, the D-backs manager who was once Red Sox bench coach and still has ties with Boston, said. “That led to a little bit of discomfort and once that got out it caught some wind. I know how things can go in Boston. It just took over.”

Of course, Bregman could re-sign with the Red Sox again now that they won’t have to relinquish another draft pick. The perfect comparison to that was Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants, who signed a contract for an under-market $18 million in 2024 with a player option.

Before Chapman even got there, the Giants pre-empted that by extending him for six years and $151 million. But Chapman made it clear he wanted to remain in San Francisco and play for Bob Melvin, his manager when he starred for the then-Oakland A’s.

MLB teams value the draft pick they might lose at $25 million no matter the pick, said Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union during an interview this summer. Clark said he’d like to get rid of the qualifying offer in the coming collective bargaining negotiations for new basic agreement next year. It only affects about a dozen players a year.

Scott Boras, Bregman and Chapman’s agent, said the qualifying offer has definitely impacted his signing of free agents in the last few years.

Bregman was certainly hampered by it this past offseason. Once he was rejected by the Astros, it took months for him to sign a deal. That’s why the third baseman seems to be intent on playing the market again.

Bregman has a short window to re-sign that is getting shorter. He must exercise his player option just after the end of the World Series.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox continue to play well with Bregman and sans Devers.

“We’ve pitched well [since the Devers trade],“ Red Sox manager Alex Cora said in an interview. “We’ve been very consistent as a group. Some other guys stepped up. That’s the reason we’re here.”