The Rafael Devers trade has sent shockwaves throughout the baseball world over the past 72 hours. Current and former Red Sox players, as well as retired Red Sox greats are giving their two cents about the trade of the year so far. While all gave mixed opinions on the deal, one thing can universally be agreed on, that being that it was a surprise.
Given the circumstances, this deal came out of nowhere. The team had just swept the Yankees for their sixth consecutive win, finally playing complementary baseball in the month of June. Why didn't CBO Craig Breslow wait about five weeks for the trade deadline to arrive to then ship Devers off? And why didn't the front office let other teams know that the slugger was available via trade, to potentially get a better return somewhere else?
These questions will be circulating around Red Sox Nation for the foreseeable future. The mishandling of the Devers situation has been the talk of the town ever since Sunday, as another former Red Sox great showed displeasure with the team's decision on Tuesday.
Pedro Martinez Defends Rafael Devers Amid Trade from Red Sox
As part of the "MLB Tuesday" pregame show on TBS, Pedro praised Devers and how he goes about the game. He also didn't shy away from throwing shade toward his former team in terms of how they managed the situation, dating all the way back to February when the team signed Alex Bregman to become the third baseman.
.@45PedroMartinez gives his thoughts on the Devers trade 👀 pic.twitter.com/lfhBV6R4O6
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) June 18, 2025
"I was shocked, just like everybody else. I was shocked, because if you try to sell to me, knowing Raffy Devers, that Raffy is a bad teammate or he's not a team player, you're lying. You're gonna tell me he's a bad influence in the clubhouse? He's not. Does he want to play every single day? Yes, that's probably why he was mad."Pedro Martinez
Pedro then went on to say that the situation was mishandled from the very beginning, and pointed to Red Sox players as the ones who should've been in Devers' corner, telling him to buy into what the team wants to do.
The main message coming from the 3-time Cy Young was that the situation wasn't handled by the right people, or in his words, "baseball people". That being Alex Cora and Devers' Red Sox teammates, not CBO Craig Breslow and team president Sam Kennedy.
"This should've been in the hands of baseball people, not front office people. Not leaking it to the media. Not having a back and forth between the media, and Alex (Cora), and Sam Kennedy, and Breslow. I think it should've been handed by baseball people... Pedroia, Big Papi."
Pedro knows more than most that matters like these should be kept in-house. The Devers situation was known all year if you just did a little research, which shouldn't be the case for a professional organization like the Red Sox. This, along with the incompetence of Craig Breslow in terms of creating a relationship with his star player, forced Breslow to hit the eject button on a player in his prime. It cannot be overstated just how badly this whole deal transpired for Boston.
The Boston Red Sox continue to play baseball, with Garrett Crochet taking the mound for the rubber match in Seattle on Wednesday.