The Boston Red Sox were fresh off a three-game sweep against one of the top teams in the league in the New York Yankees. The club has notched its seventh win of the last eight games, and they are set to focus on their upcoming trip to the West Coast as they are set to take on the Seattle Mariners. All of that hype and focus went away in a snap after Rafael Devers was suddenly traded.

The star slugger – the last remnant of the club’s most recent success in the World Series back in 2018 – Rafael Devers is gone from wearing Red Sox club kits to putting up a new one. Boston received righty Jordan Hicks, lefty Kyle Harrison, and a pair of prospects in outfielder James Tibbs III (Giants' No. 4 prospect at the time of the deal) and righty Jose Bello.

All of a sudden, the story has flipped well from being a huge season for Devers, only to end up being on the moving end of a trade that may well define the future of the club. Just six weeks before the July 31 Trade Deadline, and just five days before the two teams involved find themselves in a showdown in San Francisco.

Why is the Devers Trade a Shocker?

For starters, Devers was the face of the Red Sox, especially after he inked a massive deal of $313.5 million worth 10 years. Imagine how would it have held up had he stayed with the team instead of being traded. In his suddenly final game for the Red Sox, Devers notched his 15th homer and the 215th overall of his career. On top of that, he logged his 500th extra-base hit.

At the age of 28, Devers is at the best of his game, well within his prime, and certainly capable of being a championship piece for his team. It can be remembered, however, that things have gone turbulent between Devers and the Red Sox in the past Spring Training, especially after the team signed third baseman Alex Bregman to a three-year deal.

In that turn, Bregman became the club’s right-handed batsman and veteran leader. Devers, who is a below-average defender based on the numbers, was prominently in the third base in his whole career. He didn’t like transitioning to the designated hitter role, but eventually agreed to that shift last March.

A New Star for the Giants

It can be remembered that the New York Giants went for Aaron Judge in the offseason, only to fall short. They also made their case for the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Carlos Correa – also falling short in both. The Giants roster has been somewhat full of supporting cast players, but never an elite star who can win big and lead the club to bigger heights.

Landing Devers in a massive deal, however, is a good move for them. In fact, it is a steal. It is rare for a star of his caliber to be involved in a trade. The mere fact that he is still in his best prime says a lot about how it is expected to turn out for the Giants moving forward.

The only thing that the Red Sox can hope for is that this trade does not end up as a disastrous move like the way they did in moving Mookie Betts, which still hits hard considering that they signed Devers a big deal because of that.

Now they just gave him away.