SEATTLE — Red Sox players knew something was happening when their charter flight to Seattle got delayed Sunday evening.

“Something was going down,” shortstop Trevor Story said.

Something big did happen. Slugger Rafael Devers — who had already boarded the flight — was informed the Red Sox traded him to the Giants. He left the plane, shook manager Alex Cora’s hand and returned to Fenway Park to pick up his vehicle.

“It’s Rafael Devers. I was just shocked to see him leave the plane,” left fielder Jarren Duran.

Story added, “Probably just as shocked as everybody else. I guess that’s kind of the best way to describe it. Didn’t really see it coming.”

The Red Sox had just swept a three-game series against the Yankees. They were winners of five straight games and eight out of their past 10 games.

“The timing of it — it comes at a weird time,” Story said. “I thought we were playing really good. I think it’s a brutal reminder that this game is a business. And it showed its face. There’s a lot of things that are out of our control. So yeah, I think a weird time, for sure. But we’ve got a game to play tonight and we’re coming to win it.”

Ace Garrett Crochet also was surprised by the timing of it as well.

“It was a shock for sure after the run that we just had this past week,” Crochet said. “After having the day to process it, I think now we’re just focused on moving forward as a group.”

Crochet said the players still have “high aspirations” and want to be in a position to force the front office to buy at the trade deadline.

“Obviously he has a big presence in the lineup,” Crochet said. We’ll miss that but we can’t really just sit here and harp on that. I don’t think that does anybody in this room any good. I don’t think that that’s what the fan base wants to hear us say either. Quite frankly for us it’s just let’s keep stacking wins. Like I said, we’re coming off a really good week but all that did was get us back to .500. We obviously have to keep pushing forward and we still have a lot of ground to make up to be the team we want to be.”

Cora addressed the team. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow hasn’t yet.

“I think that the front office doesn’t owe us an explanation,” Crochet said. “Quite frankly, what they’re doing is what’s best for the team and we have to respect that. I think as players, it’s on us to just continue to do our job.”

Starting pitcher Walker Buehler said the same thing.

“I think from the outside perspective that (hearing from Breslow) would seem like a logical thing,” Buehler said. “As we said, this is part of the business and we have no reason to get an explanation. They made the decision and our job kind of remains the same.”

Multiple players described the trade as losing one of 26 players.

As Crochet put it, “Next man up.”

“Personally, I didn’t see it coming. It was like a shock,” Duran said. “At the end of the day, it is baseball and a business. And they made a decision they thought was best for us. We’ve just gotta stick by it and move forward as a team.”

Duran said he and his teammates “can’t dwell on it.”

Asked if the trade makes the team better, Duran replied, “I don’t know. We haven’t played yet. Never know.”

“He’s a great player,” Duran added about Devers. “But at the end of the day, it’s how many guys, 26? It’s just one guy. So we’ve got 25 other guys that are pulling on the same line to win those series. Not just one. So I think we’ve gotta think about it like that as a team.”