By Emmanuel Espinal
30 de enero de 2026
There’s an old saying: “He who laughs last, laughs best.” Time proved Rafael “Carita” Devers right about the Red Sox front office when he said they don’t keep their word. Alex Bregman’s signing with the Chicago Cubs on January 14 left Boston like the dog with two bones: it ended up with neither the one in its mouth nor the one in the reflection. Boston was left with none of the two marquee third basemen it once had within reach—Devers or Bregman—and it came out looking bad in front of a frustrated fan base.
Devers was the face of the team—homegrown, developed in their own farm system—and one of the favorites of the fans who filled the ballpark 81 times a season. But under new ownership and a new general manager, after the debacle of the Bloom years, they wanted to change the vibe around a young core and chose to pursue Bregman, a veteran. A move that would go on to be framed as one of the worst decisions in franchise history—second only to trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
With that came the drama of last preseason. Devers was first told he wouldn’t be moved off third base even if Bregman were signed, and that’s why he gave the green light to the signing. But once camp started, a reporter’s question sparked the storm. After the incident, they asked Devers to move to first base—something they themselves knew he wasn’t going to do, based on his own prior comments. After a tug-of-war, they settled on making him the full-time designated hitter. But that arrangement didn’t last long: when Triston Casas got injured, the insistance started again about Devers playing first base, all while Boston’s Chief Baseball Officer (CBO), Craig Breslow, fanned the flames of a smear campaign the front office was building against him.
Finally by June, both sides were so far apart that the only thing left was a divorce. Within days, Breslow struck a deal with his counterpart in San Francisco, and on June 15 they traded Devers to the Giants for Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, James Tibbs III, José Bello, and cash considerations. In plain Dominican terms: for a cheap pint of liquor, a half-smoked cigarette, a piece of chewed gum, and five pesos—while the fan base was furious beyond words. Devers was the face of the team and the engine of the offense. They had given him a 10-year, $313.5 million extension, and he was the last remaining player from the 2018 championship roster. But that wasn’t enough for the new owners. Devers ended up on a plane to San Francisco, where he finished the year with a .252 AVG, 35 HR, 109 RBI, 99 R, and 112 BB—shutting people up.
A Brief Parenthesis: A Reflection on Breslow
They say no one holds absolute truths—but that doesn’t mean absolute truths don’t exist. Even if it doesn’t look like one, the absolute truth here is that Craig Breslow’s short time as the Red Sox’s Chief Baseball Officer has been awful. His Ivy League education hasn’t saved him from making terrible decisions. When he traded Devers, you could’ve said time would tell whether it was a good move—but time is undefeated, and it’s shown us it wasn’t: he ended up without Devers and without Devers’s supposed replacement in Bregman.
“Carita” Got to Laugh Last
In the end, the Red Sox leadership (Henry, Breslow, and Cora) did everything they could to smear Devers as a problematic player—something he managed to dispel by playing first base for the Giants. But what truly cemented Devers’s smile was Bregman signing with the Cubs on January 14, 2026. That was the day Breslow realized he had laid an ostrich egg: he was left with no third baseman, a mess in his hands—and Devers laughing out loud.