The Red Sox's Lack of Communication in 2025 is Costing Them in 2026
By Jacob Levine | jlevine0228@gmail.com
The Boston Red Sox have gone through a lot since the Alex Bregman acquisition. Originally, it was seen as a great move by the team…
But it turned out to be their darkest hour…
Alex Bregman Signing:
The date is Wednesday, February 12th, 2025. The Red Sox pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp, and the team was coming off a decent offseason. CBO Craig Breslow, entering his second offseason as the Team Czar, had a more productive offseason. He made a massive trade for Garrett Crochet, acquired Carlos Narvaez, and signed Aroldis Chapman, all of which contributed heavily in their 2025 playoff season.
Many thought that this was something that was going to be the end of his offseason heading into camp. But right when the team was heading to Fort Myers, Breslow had one more move in him.
Third baseman Alex Bregman was still a free agent. He wanted something long-term, but the teams weren’t forking up the money he and his agent, Scott Boras, had desired. Finally, a deal was done. Craig Breslow offered him a three-year deal, worth $120 million, with deferrals and opt-outs after his first and second seasons.
Everyone was excited. This was going to be the year the Red Sox would do something for the first time since 2021. Then came Monday, next week on February 17th…
Rafael Devers/Red Sox Drama
Rafael Devers was in a press conference when someone asked him if he was willing to move off third base, he said “No, I play third.”
Some were mad, some were happy he spoke out. But here’s the truth, and nothing but the truth: The Red Sox told him that Bregman was going to play second, not third. When that decision came, they put Bregman at third. Devers’ ego was bruised, and the Red Sox were at fault for not involving him in the Bregman acquisition. Both sides had handled the situation wrong.
Devers’ mindset was, in a way, justified, as this was in the contract extension that he signed in 2023 during Chaim Bloom’s last year as President of Team Operations. The organization had promised him the position, and Devers held onto that promise regardless of a leadership change from within. He felt “lied to and betrayed”, per Jeff Passan on ESPN. If he were to move off the position, he felt he should just ease into the position by playing at third for a couple of days a week and playing DH the rest of the time, but the organization didn’t budge.
It somehow got worse in early May. Triston Casas had just suffered a season-ending torn left patellar tendon injury, and he had to get surgery on it. Right away, the Red Sox wanted to move Devers to first base and put him back on the field. Devers refused, feeling like the message the organization was sending wasn’t right for him. After publicly refusing to play first while talking to the media, owner John Henry ended up meeting with him on the road trip at Kansas City, where Devers stated that he was willing to play first full-time in 2026, but not right away.
To the Red Sox, if Devers wasn’t willing to help and do what was best for the team, it wasn’t something they wanted in the clubhouse with young guys like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kristian Campbell now all on the roster at the time. On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15th, Rafael Devers was traded.
The Rafael Devers Trade:
Breslow, after months of trying to recapture the relationship with his player, found the situation irreconcilable. Rafael Devers was sent to the San Francisco Giants for left-hander Kyle Harrison, outfielder James Tibbs III, right-handers Jordan Hicks, and minor leaguer Jose Bello.
To be fair, they should’ve gotten a little more, as Harrison, Hicks, and Bello were all either unproven commodities or proven to be terrible pitchers. In many ways, Breslow envisioned the pitchers as projects over anything, which isn’t the sight to have on trading a franchise player.
The Red Sox did what they could with Harrison, tweaking his arsenal, adding a cutter, and getting a new grip on his changeup. He improved in Triple-A, recording a 3.75 ERA while striking out 50 batters in 50 1/3 innings in 12 starts. He was called up in early September alongside top prospect left-handers Connelly Early and Payton Tolle, where he contributed out of the bullpen. He posted a 3.00 ERA with 13 strikeouts in three appearances (12 innings).
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Jordan Hicks never turned out to be anything, but Jose Bello may be a promising bullpen piece, posting a 3.09 in Low-A Salem last year, striking out 17 batters in 23 1/3 innings pitched in relief and in four starts as well. Entering his age-21 season, maybe he’ll turn into something, but don’t guarantee it’ll happen anytime soon.
Alex Bregman’s Departure:
Not only this, but in late June, Scott Boras confirmed that Bregman wanted to stay in Boston on a more permanent basis and was open to extension talks. However, the Red Sox looked elsewhere, extending both Roman Anthony and Aroldis Chapman. Afterwards, Bregman wanted to table talks until the end of the season, where fans started to worry about his chances of opting out of his current contract increasing by the day.
It was official on November 3rd: Alex Bregman had informed the Red Sox that he would be opting out of his contract, electing free agency.
However, the hope was that since he was looking to sign a long-term deal, the rumors were still positive towards Boston’s favor in his return. They made an “aggressive offer”, offering him five years, worth $165 million, to stay. But due to the Cubs offering him a full no-trade clause and the Red Sox’s unwillingness to do so in negotiations, Bregman was now gone.
But now, since he’s left, the Red Sox are left with no franchise player, only prospects that haven’t reached their peak yet.
Aftermath:
Just over a month after the Devers trade, the Red Sox wanted to shore up their pitching rotation due to an injury to Hunter Dobbins. As a backup option in case they didn’t acquire Twins’ All-Star Joe Ryan, Breslow looked towards the Los Angeles Dodgers and their endless pitching depth, and looked further into it. He got Dustin May out of it and traded outfielders James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard for him.
Somehow, somebody didn’t hit Breslow in the face with a mallet over this move, since Dustin May wasn’t worth trading away a top 10 prospect for. He posted a 4.85 ERA while giving up 16 home runs and walking 43 before he went to Boston. He did terribly afterwards, too, posting an ERA of 5.40 while giving up 17 earned runs and 35 hits in only 28.1 innings pitched and in only five starts and one appearance in the bullpen.
Come the 2025–2026 offseason, the Red Sox tried to solve their endless pitching depth. Breslow got rid of Jordan Hicks and his awful contract, trading him to the Chicago White Sox alongside top 15 prospect right-hander David Sandlin and two PTBL (one confirmed to be RHP Payton Galle on Monday).
In a last-minute effort during the first week of Spring Training, the Red Sox made a big trade to acquire Caleb Durbin from the Milwaukee Brewers. They traded Harrison, Shane Drohan, and infielder David Hamilton in the process. Durbin is now the starting third baseman for the Red Sox in place of Bregman. He’s having a tough start to his season debut, batting only .071 with just two hits in 28 at-bats.
Now, entering 2026, most of these pieces traded to other teams have given serious remorse towards the now-2–7 2026 Red Sox. Tibbs has been raking in Triple-A for the Dodgers, hitting seven home runs in just nine games, including a three-home run game on Sunday. He’s batting .474 with 18 hits in 38 at-bats, with five walks and 13 RBIs attached to his name. Zach Ehrhard is doing pretty good as well in Triple-A, hitting .280 with seven hits in 25 at-bats, with five RBIs to his name.
Harrison has broken out so far in that Brewers rotation, striking out 14 batters in just 10 1/3 innings pitched, with a 2.61 ERA to boot. He’s currently en route to becoming this year’s Quinn Priester, where he got traded from the Red Sox to the Brewers last year, and became the second-best starter there behind Freddy Peralta.
Since Bregman had signed with the Red Sox in 2025, everything has taken a turn for the worse. The Red Sox now don’t have a complete lineup, regardless of acquiring Durbin and Willson Contreras in the offseason.
This acquisition ultimately caused Devers’ departure, and now that the acquisition is no longer here, only one year has passed in between.
The Devers trade and Bregman’s time in Boston are intertwined and will always be viewed in that sense by the fans. It affects everything else in between, too.
While Tibbs would’ve been excess goods to the likes of Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, and Ceddanne Rafaela, they still could’ve done a lot better than Dustin May. Losing Bregman forced the Red Sox to pivot toward getting Durbin, trading away another potential breakout arm in Harrison. Bregman could’ve played second base to at least start last season, and top prospect Kristian Campbell wouldn’t have made the Opening Day roster. Thus, he likely wouldn’t have gotten extended early on and wouldn’t have gotten demoted after struggling for two months in the bigs. He probably would’ve been called up alongside Anthony and Mayer, and they probably would be all in their peak right now, instead of just one or two of them.
Then, they would’ve moved Devers to DH full-time by this year in 2026, with Bregman or Mayer playing at third, with Campbell at second. Like Devers himself said about the situation before the trade, “Sometimes it’s not the message, it’s how the message is delivered.”
With the Red Sox sitting in last place at a 2–8 record, losing every series this year so far, it’s becoming frustrating for every fan out there. Everyone wants answers, but we can only look at the past right now to determine how we truly got here, and we wish for different outcomes.
Imagine if they had just let Devers know that Bregman was going to sign with the team. None of this would’ve ever happened. Devers would’ve still been on the team, and losing Bregman in the offseason wouldn’t be a big deal. However, that’s not what happened…
But it should’ve…
