{"id":677989,"date":"2026-04-17T23:51:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677989\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:51:32","slug":"analyst-red-sox-devers-contract-now-worst-in-baseball-after-giants-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677989\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst: Red Sox Devers Contract Now \u2018Worst in Baseball\u2019 After Giants Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Rafael\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Rafael Devers reacts during a game as an analyst labels his contract the worst in baseball following his move from the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox<\/a> gave their third baseman Rafael Devers<\/a> the largest contract in team history<\/a> in January 2023. About two years later, even the Red Sox appeared to acknowledge that it was a bad contract. They traded Devers in June of last year, sending him along with his 10-year, $313.5 million contract<\/a> to the San Francisco Giants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, a top baseball analyst has named the Devers deal as \u201cthe worst contract in baseball,\u201d as the 29-year-old who has converted to first base and designated hitter continues to struggle in San Francisco, with only 16 hits in his first 79 plate appearances this season<\/a> with 23 strikeouts\u2014one every 3.4 trips to the plate\u2014and a .577 OPS.<\/p>\n

Devers\u2019 OPS+, which measures a hitter against all others in the league, has sunk to just 66, meaning that Devers has performed 34 percent worse than the average National League hitter so far. But the Giants<\/a>, who assumed the entirety of the three-time All-Star\u2019s remaining contract, still owe Devers more than $226 million over this season and the next seven.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Analyst: Devers Declining and Will Not Bounce Back<\/p>\n

FanSided analyst Chris Sanders, writing<\/a> on Thursday, expressed no optimism that Devers would improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter another 0-for-4 against the Reds<\/a> on Thursday afternoon, I\u2019m here to tell you that, if you\u2019re just assuming that Devers\u2019 production will revert to his career norms, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re sorely mistaken,\u201d Sanders wrote. \u201cIf he\u2019s already declining at the plate now, things are about to get ugly over the eight years and more than $200 million remaining on the massive extension he signed before things went south with the Boston Red Sox\u2014as ugly as we\u2019ve seen from any contract in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his nine years with the Red Sox, Devers posted an .851 OPS and belted 215 home runs. Why is Sanders certain that the 10-year veteran will only get worse?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like Devers has been unlucky so far this season,\u201d Sanders wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s been straight bad by just about every metric, and most of his expected stats are in the same neighborhood as his actual ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Red Sox Fixed a Mistake by Dumping Devers Salary<\/p>\n

The story around why the Red Sox traded Devers has usually centered around Devers\u2019 discontent over being asked to move off of third base when Boston signed Alex Bregman<\/a> as a free agent at the outset of spring training.<\/p>\n

But Devers\u2019 sharp decline since the trade, on June 15 of last year, may point to Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow\u2019s suspicions that the contract was drastically overvalued. Devers\u2019 performance on the Giants<\/a> would appear to bear out those suspicions.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven just how much money, and for just how long, San Francisco is committed, that already makes him the worst contract in the sport,\u201d wrote Sanders. \u201cAsk yourself a simple question: Would the Giants be able to swap Devers\u2019 contract with [insert bad long-term deal here] in a straight-up trade \u2014 i.e., would another team view Devers\u2019 deal as the better value of the two? I\u2019m not sure you can find a contract for which the answer would be yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders appears to acknowledge that Breslow knew what he was doing when he traded Devers, and Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey<\/a> did not. Posey, according to Sanders, was \u201cso desperate to finally add a middle-of-the-order bat\u201d that he jumped at the chance to get Devers \u201cwithout wondering why Boston was making him so available in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Red Sox\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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