Revisiting Giants’ stunning Rafael Devers trade on one-year anniversary of move

SAN FRANCISCO — The Rafael Devers trade was one of the most shocking in recent MLB history given the timing, but you could argue that what has happened since has been nearly as surprising. Two days after they moved into a tie for first in the NL West, the Giants pushed all their chips to the center of the table — and they’ve gone 69-93 since. The Red Sox tried to reset their future around younger players and a different vibe in the clubhouse. In their first full season without Devers, they’re 11 games under .500 and in last place. The deal felt like a win-win at the time, but at times over the past year it has morphed into a lose-lose agreement. It’s a deal that has not at all led to what was expected, and perhaps that’s appropriate. It was one that came completely out of left field in the first place.The Giants were preparing to face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball last June 15 when word of the deal first leaked. Kyle Harrison, that night’s starter, was pulled out of the bullpen by pitching coach J.P. Martinez and walked back to the clubhouse, where manager Bob Melvin was waiting with the news. Reliever Sean Hjelle took his place on the mound as the baseball world tried to make sense of what had just happened. In a sign of just how much can change in this game, the other three men listed there other than Harrison are also no longer with the Giants. It’s been a year of turnover and unexpected twists. On the anniversary of the Devers trade, here’s a look at where all parties now stand … The GiantsAfter years of watching the franchise come up short with big-time free-agent hitters, Buster Posey took a different approach. The Giants took on roughly &dollar;260 million with Devers, the largest contract for any player who has ever worn orange and black, and a year ago, it made a lot of sense. This was the way to get a cornerstone for the lineup, the type who wouldn’t be available to them through other methods. The consensus was that this was a trade Posey had to make, and there wasn’t much pushback a year ago.But this might not end up being a win for the Giants, and not just because of what has happened to Harrison and James Tibbs III since the trade. That was the cost of acquiring such a talent, and nobody blinked at the time. The real issue for the Giants right now is that Devers might have been the right move at the wrong time.Posey thought he was putting a superstar in the middle of the lineup at a time when the Giants were about to contend, but it now appears that there was no such window. They’re 14 games under .500, and the trio of Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames has disappointed and also is owed &dollar;451 million after this season. The Giants are stuck, and there are no easy answers for how to get out of this. This is not a franchise that will swallow that kind of contract and then hand out a similar one a year later. This was the big move for Posey as an executive, and if there’s no window to contend for titles while Devers is still in his physical prime, it will have been a mistake. It certainly didn’t help that they followed it with a quiet offseason, in part because they viewed the Devers addition as the one that would make all the difference. Devers is under contract for seven more years and that money is going to hurt at some point. But the idea was that the Giants would be much-improved for the next three or four years, and so far they’re somehow way worse. Part of that is because Devers himself has not lived up to expectations; he has a .762 OPS as a Giant, and while he does have 29 homers in 162 games, he also has struck out 209 times. The other consideration here is the left-handed slugger who currently is the team’s best hitter. Bryce Eldridge has arrived as a fully-formed threat sooner than anyone expected, but he’s blocked at first base by Devers, who has been solid defensively and likes playing first base. That might be the case for years to come, and it could keep Eldridge from reaching his full potential as a player. It also has blocked off any possibility of the Giants moving another veteran to DH in the coming years, or even using that spot to give rest to players who need it. The Red SoxBoston’s journey to this trade started with the addition of Alex Bregman, which moved Devers off of third base and upset him. If you’re going to do that, you at least have to commit to Bregman, but the Red Sox watched him sign a five-year deal with the Chicago Cubs a few months after the trade. That wasn’t even the worst part of the fallout for Boston.They acquired four players and already have included three of them in subsequent trades. The only remaining player is right-hander Jose Bello, who is in A-ball and not among their top 30 prospects. Expensive reliever Jordan Hicks was sent to the Chicago White Sox in a salary dump, but the Red Sox made two other trades that have hurt, and might continue to do so for years to come. Harrison was the centerpiece of the deal and Boston essentially put him through a second spring training at their Triple-A affiliate last summer. They then spent an offseason adding starting pitching talent, which bumped Harrison down the depth chart and eventually led to him being traded to Milwaukee for Caleb Durbin and two other infielders. Durbin is hitting .194. The second mistake came with Tibbs, a former first-rounder who was the key to getting the deal over the finish line. In a move that went under the radar on deadline day, the Red Sox sent him and another prospect to Los Angeles for right-hander Dustin May, who posted a 5.40 ERA down the stretch and didn’t make Boston’s postseason roster. May signed with St. Louis in the offseason.The Devers trade never will sting as much in Boston as the Mookie Betts one, but once again the Red Sox have been left with very little to show for a deal that involved a face of the franchise, and they seem to have bungled the process at every turn. Like Posey, Red Sox exec Craig Breslow is a former big leaguer, but he doesn’t have anywhere close to Posey’s job security and there have been constant calls in recent months for Boston to make a change at the top. The WinnersWhen you look at the last five years of Giants baseball, the aftermath of the Devers trade fits right in: One of the big winners ended up being the Los Angeles Dodgers.The Dodgers had long liked Tibbs, but figured they would just watch him in rivalry games for the rest of the decade. Tibbs was having a decent start to his minor-league career after the Giants took him, but he struggled with Boston’s Double-A affiliate. This season, with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, he has taken off.Few prospects have seen their standing rise more in 2026 than the 23-year-old, who has a 1.036 OPS and 19 homers. The Athletic recently listed him as their 23rd best prospect in the minors. Given how much outfield talent the Dodgers have in the minors, Tibbs might never fully haunt the Giants in NL West games, but he could wind up being the centerpiece of another huge deal this season or at a subsequent deadline as the Dodgers push for more titles. Similarly, the Brewers always had coveted Harrison, but they didn’t think they had a way to get him. They came out as big winners, too, as Harrison joined Jacob Misiorowski atop what is one of the league’s best rotations. “You have the combination of a really talented and physical kid, and also really sharp,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said this spring. “We love those ingredients. We’re really excited about him.” Harrison is 8-1 with a 2.47 ERA for the Brewers, and if you take out one horrible start in the launching pad in Las Vegas that the Athletics played in last week, that ERA is 1.42. When he faced the Giants earlier this month, he tied a career-high with 12 strikeouts. Trade night was stunning for the Bay Area native, who had grown close with Logan Webb and others on the staff and hoped to be pitching a few miles from home for the rest of his career. But in a way, he has come out as the big winner in the Devers deal.The Giants face an uncertain future, but Harrison ended up in what is perhaps the best spot in all of baseball for a young pitcher. He is living up to the expectations that everyone had for him when he passed on a UCLA commitment and signed with his hometown team, and there’s a good chance he’s on the All-Star team next month, something that isn’t in play for anyone else from that trade.Harrison hasn’t returned to Dodger Stadium since June 15, 2025, but he might this October. Unlike the Giants and Red Sox, the Brewers look headed for the postseason. Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Revisiting Giants’ stunning Rafael Devers trade on one-year anniversary of move

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