{"id":210566,"date":"2025-09-08T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210566\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:57:15","slug":"bregman-devers-cast-long-shadow-over-red-sox-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210566\/","title":{"rendered":"Bregman, Devers Cast Long Shadow Over Red Sox Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPHOENIX \u2014The primary characters of the Boston Red Sox<\/a>\u2019s 2025 regular season have been Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers.<\/p>\n

\n\tDevers 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\u2019s premier third basemen in his nine seasons playing for the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe New York Yankees needed a third baseman this offseason, but never made an offer to Bregman.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen 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\u2019t 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\u2019s gladly played all three positions.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve been playing better baseball since the trade, even executing better,\u201d Bregman said this weekend at Chase Field where the Red Sox lost two out of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks. \u201cObviously [Devers is] an incredible player. Those moves are out of our hands. We weren\u2019t playing well when he was around earlier in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBregman 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.\u00a0 He also missed nearly two months because of a right quad strain.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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\u00a0Spotrac.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the June trade, the Red Sox have played themselves back into playoff position. That\u2019s great for the short term, but what happens when Bregman opts out, and the team is left without Bregman and Devers?<\/p>\n

\n\tIs this any way to run a baseball team?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere were some steps that weren\u2019t taken the right way according to Rafi,\u201d Torey Lovullo, the D-backs manager who was once Red Sox bench coach and still has ties with Boston, said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Bregman could re-sign with the Red Sox again now that they won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore 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\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tMLB<\/a> teams value the draft pick they might lose at $25 million no matter the pick, said Tony Clark, the executive director of the players\u2019 union during an interview this summer. Clark said he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tScott Boras, Bregman and Chapman\u2019s agent, said the qualifying offer has definitely impacted his signing of free agents in the last few years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBregman 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\u2019s why the third baseman seems to be intent on playing the market again.<\/p>\n

\n\tBregman 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, the Red Sox continue to play well with Bregman and sans Devers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve pitched well [since the Devers trade],\u201c Red Sox manager Alex Cora said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very consistent as a group. Some other guys stepped up. That\u2019s the reason we\u2019re here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014The primary characters of the Boston Red Sox\u2019s 2025 regular season have been Alex Bregman and Rafael…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1281,10004,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-210566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-boston-red-sox","9":"tag-free-agency","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115169502607649477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}