The Boston Red Sox shocked the entire Major League Baseball world on Sunday night when they completed a trade to send three-time All-Star Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
In return, Boston received pitchers Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison. But the deal has been met with a ton of criticism around the league from fans, insiders and executives alike.
Back in February, the NBA's Dallas Mavericks made the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The deal hasn't worked out well for the Mavs.
One MLB executive spoke to Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic and likened the Devers deal to the Doncic trade.
"We got our Luka Doncic trade!" the executive said. "It should have happened in spring training, but no one saw it coming now. Our group chat was blowing up."
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This is certainly a shocking trade, and while it is different from the Doncic trade in many ways, given it's from a different sport and features different players, the level of shock is quite similar.
Granted, the relationship between the Red Sox and Devers had soured significantly after Devers was unwilling to change positions to accommodate Alex Bregman and to fill in at first base after Triston Casas went down.
But the Red Sox didn't get much in return for the three-time All-Star, and it's looking like a very lopsided deal in favor of the Giants.
It will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out, but the shock around the industry and among fans and insiders is palpable.
This is a deal that nobody saw coming. Time will tell if the Red Sox made the right decision.
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