If you were busy celebrating Father’s Day on Sunday, you might have missed an unexpected blockbuster trade between the Boston Red Sox and the San Francisco Giants. The surprise swap sent 3-time All-Star Rafael Devers to the Giants in exchange for veteran right-hander and former Blue Jay Jordan Hicks, a young southpaw starter in Kyle Harrison, an outfield prospect named James Tibbs III, and a minor league arm in Jose Bello.

While it’s not a major shock to see the Red Sox decide to move on amid all the drama surrounding Devers this season, he was still arguably the face of their franchise and the best hitter in their lineup. The Red Sox are rich in young talent like Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, and many others who have graced the top 100 prospect lists in recent years. Still, Devers is only 28 and was a nice fit as a leader now, and someone young enough to grow with this talented young nucleus. Unfortunately, the relationship between the veteran slugger and the club soured over the past few months, and the Red Sox decided that a fresh start was the best course of action.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see the Red Sox actually pull the trigger on this deal, but what’s not particularly shocking is that the Blue Jays were among the teams that reportedly checked in on the Devers situation, at least according to Sean McAdam from MassLive.com (subscription required). Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays’ front office team have long been known to conduct thorough due diligence in exploring potential player acquisitions, so it makes sense to me that they inquired about Devers as well, even with the AL East rivalry at stake.

It doesn’t really matter all that much at the moment, but the fit would have been pretty great for the Blue Jays, giving them another elite bat to add to a lineup that has performed much better more recently after struggling to start the year.

Devers is still one of the better left-handed hitters in the American League, and the Jays could have looked at a few different options for him. They could have used him as their primary DH for this year, as he’s mostly been doing for the Red Sox in 2025, or maybe they could have even looked at returning him to third base, where he’s played most of his career. He wasn’t a particularly strong defender at the hot corner in 2024, which is part of why the Red Sox asked him to DH in deference to free agent Alex Bregman for this season, but at the time, Devers was still adamant that he wanted to be viewed as a third baseman.

His left-handed power bat would have fit very well in Toronto, as would his strong relationship with Vladimir Guerrero Jr and others on the roster. There’s no doubt that the fit made all the sense in the world, at least as far as the Blue Jays expressing their interest, but they were never going to be the only suitor, and sharing a division with the Red Sox also makes coming to a deal a lot more difficult. I’m not sure the Blue Jays would have been comfortable beating the package that the Giants sent for Devers, even if it wasn’t overwhelming.

Hicks has struggled this year (1-5, 6.47), and the former reliever turned starter could benefit from a fresh start with the Red Sox. We’ll see what his role in Boston will look like, and regardless, his contract was the more important part anyway in helping offset the cost of the Giants taking on Devers’ contract. Hicks signed a 4-year deal with the Giants ahead of the 2024 season and is making just $6.84 million this year, but that figure jumps to $12.5 million for each of the next two campaigns. As for Harrison, he’s been a long-hyped prospect with a lot of upside and is probably the most valuable piece of this deal for the Sox. Tibbs has some solid power in his bat and some nice upside overall, and he now clocks in as the #6 prospect in Boston according to MLB Pipeline.

Hypothetically, what would the Blue Jays have offered to meet or beat what the Giants ultimately paid?

They don’t really have a starter like Hicks they could offer as a comp, at least not one that is still under control for a couple more seasons. Maybe someone like Bowden Francis fits here, but that might be a stretch. Even if that did work, we’re probably still looking at Ricky Tiedemann or even Trey Yesavage headed to Boston in this deal, and maybe a guy like Orelvis Martinez as well. We have to remember, the Red Sox would have to be blown away by a division rival like the Blue Jays to make a trade with them instead of an NL team like the Giants, and in my mind it’s a giant stretch to see it coming together unless Atkins and his team decided to get extremely aggressive.

Instead, the Jays won’t have to see Devers as often as they used to, which won’t be such a bad thing. Time will tell if the Red Sox did the right thing in moving on from their longest tenured hitter, but for now, the Red Sox likely weakened their lineup in the immediate term.

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