The Devers Trade

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.

Well, it's a big story, and it's a story that Dan Watkins and.

I just talked about.

Thank you very much, Dan for not only the newscast but also for the interview. At eight forty five, Dan was covering a news conference today, the Red Sox have parted ways with Raffie Devers. It's well, Dan Shaughnessy's piece in the Globe today headline Devers good vibes are gone. This is not going to play well in Red Sox nation. It's shocking and demoralizing. I agree with Dan Shaughnessy. I don't get this, I really don't. I'm sure there are

As a matter of fact, yesterday hit a home run off of the.

Yankee aceh Max Freed, And so that's kind of I think interesting that he's he's done well. You heard Dan Watkins explain that they wanted to play for a space and that Sam Kennedy used the word they they couldn't get.

In alignment with with the player.

Well, he's making a lot of money, and I can see with the Red Sox were upset. John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox, along with Sam Kennedy, flew out and had a meeting with Devers in Kansas City earlier this year to try to sell will calm the waters. Well, that meeting apparently didn't work. Uh and uh it is beginning to appear that no matter what effort was made, UH,

But to lose a guy like Devers.

He was the heart of this team, really was the heart of this team. And to lose him at this point in the year, when the when the team just started to be to turn themselves around kind of shocking to me anyway. And I'd love to know what do you think? Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty If you're a Red Sox fan, Uh, love to hear what you would you would think. I think it's it's a it's a tough pill to swallow because they were they were starting to pull get their act together, just

Rafi.

Deveres looked fine when Rafi. When Devis started, if you remember the first eighteen at bats, I think he struck out something like fourteen times, had one hit. Well, he's now back to the old Raffie Devers. The Red Sox play in Seattle, to play in San Francisco this weekend, so there will be a reunion of Devers in the Red Sox this weekend. Devers, I'm not sure if he's

I don't know.

We'll have to check and see if that game is underway. We can do that during the break, But in the meantime, I'll love to hear from you if you're a baseball fan. This is pretty dispiriting. I don't see what they got back for Devors. They obviously offloaded a lot of salary. In baseball parliamce sometimes that's a salary dump. So they have freed up about two hundred and fifty million dollars in salary that they were committed to pay Devers, which now will be paid by the Giants or whoever else

That's the question?

Six one seme on right back on Night Side.

It's Night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's news radio.

We don't do sports here every night. This is not a sports show. But I understand baseball.

And I enjoy baseball. I think it's of all the games. Certainly I like hockey too, But I'm a baseball guy at heart, and this one doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So let's let's see. Let's see what do you think of it. Maybe some of you can explain to me why it's a brilliant move.

I don't know.

Let's see what John in Weymouth thinks. Hey, John, Raffie devastraatee, what where would you put this in the pantheon of Red Sox trades?

Dan good to be good to be on Night Side, of course, so you taking my call. But Dan, if I'm missed to Henry and as you hit the nail on the head, this guy devis he works for the Red Sox Corporation, correct.

Correct.

The boss me ask him, not only be a great designated hitter, Davis, would you be kind enough to play third base? And he says no, I'm paying your two hundred million dollars, which I'd like to play first base.

I think it's actually about it. In total, it's about three hundred and thirty million.

By the way.

Okay, well, I'm an orthopedic surgeon, and that's ridiculous. Okay, Hey, someone pays someone to play baseball for three hundred million dollars a year.

Is that capitalism? Capitalism is a wonderful thing. Could you hit the curveball?

Doc? Doctor?

Can you hit the curveball? That's the that's the problem that you and I both have.

Is it me or not?

But I'm mister Henry. I asked this guy that works for me to go ahead and do something that I'd like to have him do. Okay he tells me no. He tells me no, Okay, so I'd fire him. I'd fire him too.

Well, here's my question, a doctor, uh and delighted that the surgeon will call my my my program, I'm honored. So my question is this, Yeah, No, here's my question. My question is you make a decision, and you say, you know what, we can't deal with this guy anymore. He's right, he's a he's a he's a problem in the clubhouse. Let's say that. Okay, so we're going to get rid of him. Is this the best You're going

Uh?

If if you had some stock stock in your portfolio there was worth one thousand dollars a share and you had, you know, five thousand shares, would you sell that sell that stock to me for two dollars a year?

Of course?

Not no. But Dan, let me ask you this question. Yeah, let's say let's say let's say you own the Red Sox, right, and you asked and you asked Devers to do a certain job, right, And he said, and he said, no, how would you handle that? How would you handle that?

Well? I got to be honest with you. The backstory. You have to understand.

He comes to spring training as the Red Sox third baseman. Now again, he's not Brooks Robinson as a fresh fielder, but he's an adequate third baseman. Uh, And they said to him, no, you're going to be the DH. Well, it turns out that Alex Bregman, who's kind of the new kid on the block, and by the way, is older than Devers. They they sign him for third base. Okay, so they tell Devers you're going to be the DH. Well,

So yeah, yeah, I can understand that too. But at the same time, you're paying this guy no no idea what someone said, Hey, Dan, we're gonna give you a three hundred million dollars to stay at w b Z.

I would consider that seriously, very seriously. God John, I appreciate the call, doctor, doctor John.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Took.

Yeah, you're you're underpaid whatever you do? What what what folks in the medical field do. They're all underpaid as far as I'm concerned. Thank you so much for your time. Good night, All right, let me get you got room here for Tony yeah, we'll give it a shot. Six one seven two Tony and Epping, New Hampshire.

Tony. You're a Red Sox fan.

Big Red Sox fan, and you know, I think there is a little a little going on on both ends. I mean, you know, you were a professional. You get paid to do a job. You know this this guy was electric. He had the potential of you know, this exit velocity with his just acumen and the way that he approached the plate and the way that he had the offense that he you know, had for the overall team.

You lose that.

I thought this guy was going to be a potential home run King actually invested in a lot of his cards, and I was like, oh, jeezus, this guy isn't pulling off thirty five to forty like I thought. But he's still doing pretty bang up excellent. You know, I think when when you're playing a sport and they say, hey, you know, play third base or whatever, I can see

Well yeah, yeah, let me help. Let me help you out with your stats, which I think are good. He had a horrible first week of the season, we all know that, right, but he already he now has and they they're just at they're like seventy three games, they're not even at the halfway mark.

Okay, so he hit the brake. He's he's got.

Fifteen homers, which which puts him on a trajectory for at least thirty probably thirty five. He's got at this point fifty eight RBIs. He's going to have one hundred and thirty RBIs with the Red Sox.

Okay, but that that goes out the door. That's tough to replace, tough to replace.

Let's say let's say he's fifteen percent of your offense. I don't know, there's numbers is probably somebody would call up on that, right, but whatever, it would be out of the lineup right for however many runs or whatever that stat he gets right for that, like, you're not replacing it with two arms like a water be arm and it may be arm in middle relief. And then two prospects like oh it was a first draft pick

Well, look at what look at what they got for for bets I mean, uh for Doogal is long gone. No Wong is now a backup catcher, backup catcher. And then they had a uh a kid who's who's had the same last name as Jeter. He's he's washed out of baseball, Jeter Downs. Jeter Downs was the shortstop if he was supposed to going to.

Be Bogarts, right, how about Bogarts his approach to the plate, his acuim in his way. If every you know what, taking pitches, wearing pitchers down like fn an opportunity, Sure bets he'd be on first piece he's at second. Now you gotta runner and scoring position like right off the bat, you know, so you know we're losing out of that. Devra's home run ball. Wish he came into camp a little bit in better shape. You know you're coming like you already know you might be at the age. Yeah,

The other thing too is look this, by the way, I was mistaken. The Giants aren't playing tonight. They play Cleveland. They opened up tomorrow and it's the Red Sox who are playing out in Seattle tonight.

Deps was was a guy who, to the.

Best of my knowledge, they all get banged up, but he's never had.

A serious injury.

Pretty sturdy guy, and you know you could count on him for one hundred and fifty five games a year. That's a lot of production. I don't know, we'll see. The thing that's great about baseball, right is the end of the season. You see where they are. They happen to trade him. Uh while they had just won five in a row for the first time this season, and they had swept the Yankees, swept him on a Fenway Park.

Right off, and then come.

On, they pulled they pulled them, I think off the plane. They said that they the deal finally was done. They pulled him off the plane and he had to take a cab, a cab back to Fedway. I don't know if you saw the video then Channel five had, but he gets out of this little cab.

You know, it's like, well, I'm sure he'll be treated royally in San Francisco.

Not a way to treat him. I would say, there's a little bit of shade on both sides, to tell you the truth, But you know, one thing I would say is if you get an opportunity to play first, or you're a professional, and they say you got to go back to third, maybe a response would be like, all right, I'll be ready. You know, it's just I mean, he went from a very bad third baseman to a mid range to you know, maybe a shade up or he worked on it.

You know, yeah I did.

Yeah right, you know, so you know what things happen. You know, there's only a TV's going for a backup pree job or a wide receiver or corners all the time in safeties like that's how it goes.

I'll tell you this, there aren't too many guys in the game who have his inate ability to hit a baseball. I remember the first time I saw him playing at Patucket, I think it was in twenty seventeen, and first time in the baddest box. He just looked at me and said, this guy's different. There's something about the way he carries himself, and he's just hitting the line drives. So we'll say, we'll say it's a long season. We still have more

Tony, appreciate you calling.

Good, Thank you real quick. I'll say I was not happy about it. That's what I wanted to tell you.

Okay, I think that's pretty obvious, right, Thank you, Thank you, Tony. Of a great one. I got some lines available. We're talking about the Raffie Devonstraate, Devonstright. Now, look, I can talk baseball, trust me that I can talk. I can take you back to I'll take you back to the nineteen fifties Red Sox.

Okay.

Uh and and of course historically even beyond that. Okay, So I do get it. I understand it. I think this is a dangerous move. I don't see how the Red Sox improve, and they are going to have There's some guys, I don't know, someone speculating this, maybe the three rookies. They're not going back down. Campbell and Mayor and Anthony. They're there for the ride. It's as simple as that the pitching isn't bad. That the pitching has actually come around.

The bullpen's pretty good. I saw that Slayton today has a problem with his neck.

Uh.

But you know, you rest the guy up and he'll be come back a little stronger. Sometimes an injury to a pitcher during the season actually helps the pitcher because the arms, the arm gets to get refreshed. So that might work fine. But I just look at the lineup and I'm thinking, Okay, let's see what happens. We'll see what happens starting built tonight. Uh in Seattle. They're facing a pretty good picture in Seattle tonight. Let's see what happens.

And no further. It's one hour max.

And if I'm gonna talk my way through the balance of the hour, I can talk baseball for an hour.

I can.

I can bring you back to the days of Gene Stevens and Carol Hardy and people like that of the Red Sox outfield, or people like Eddie Pursued and Don Budden and my great friend Ted Lepsio, who was actually a really fine player for the Red Sox in the nineteen fifties. We'll come back on nightside right after this Let's talk baseball and Raffie Devers.

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.

All right, we're talking a little baseball. Raffie Devers is gone. Here's Bill in New York.

Bill. I'm not sure if you're.

A Yankee fan, but I bet you're probably pretty happy to see Raffie Devers playing in the National League.

Well, i'll tell you. I'm I'm a Boston fan, Okay, born in New York but left very early, and I'm a Red Sox fan through and through.

Good for you, Good for you.

Yeah, I'll tell you. I think it was the best move the Red Sox made.

You were going to be in a definite minority.

Tell me why.

Well, you were talking about the trade coming up soon. Get rid of him before you can't get rid of them, And get rid of the two hundred and fifty million left on his salary or his contract, and get somebody or some other people that could come in and do a little bit of what he did. But if you have, we go back to Beckett in the in the in the locker room or the clubhouse with the beers and chicken fried chicken.

Yeah, you got you gotta get rid of the.

Cancer I think he was making. He was he was creating a problem within the organization, and I think they got rid of him just in time before he corrupted a lot of other people.

Okay, that's a different that's a different take. And I'm sure Craig Breslow is listening. He's happy to hear that. I don't know what. Look he has always been Has he ever been a problem child with this organization for the eight years he's played here.

No, But I'll tell you, like like your last call has said. You know, if mister Henry says, hey, I need you to do this, and he says, no, you made me a DH. I need you to do this. No, you made me a DH. And that's what I'm doing when I hit the ball. Well, you're not hitting the ball all that well all the time.

And are the country the guy has? The guy has fifty eight RBIs they're not halfway through the season. That puts him on the track for about one hundred and thirty RBIs. That's not a bad year. Thirty five home rounds not bad?

Is it worth two hundred and fifty million this.

Day and age?

It very well might be very well by the way they play. They're paid a lot of people a lot of money. I mean, you know, what do you want him to do? You know, play for half the price? I don't know you you're oh, I understand the point you're making. You either remember the team or you're not, is what you're saying to me. And I I generally buy into that philosophy.

Yeah, you know, I'm a veteran of the army and and I always, uh, I was brought up you do what you're gonna do for the whole team.

Oh no, I get it. And you weren't.

You weren't making anywhere near three hundred and thirty million when you're in the army.

I'm getting I know that.

No, no, no. When I when I got out on ninety six, I think my monthly salary was uh nine and ninety eight dollars for the month.

Wow? Uh what what was what was your rank? H?

E four E four E four?

Okay, fair enough, Look, thank you for your service, and thank you for your call. This is a really thoughtful phone call. And let's see how it works out. To me, if the Red Sox get rolling here and they they they make the playoffs, everyone's going to look back on this as the trade for when they traded Nomar Gassia Para. Uh. If you remember back in two thousand and four, Gaussian Para was kind of hurt, wasn't particularly playing well, And that was the game that Jeter leaped into the stands.

If I got one other thing to say, Dan, if you don't mind, I was. I was at Fenway Park when they had the Jerry Remi day when they gave out the the patches or the number number two I ride motorcycle. I put that on my vest and I was up in New York and I had a guy I'm gassing up my bike. I had a guy say to me, hey, I knew Jerry Remy. He'd be so proud of you wearing that number two.

Good for you, Good for you.

It was.

Yeah, Remy.

Remy was a local guy, grew up at Somerset and he made it. He made it for the Red Sox, not only as a player, pretty good second basement, but a great sidekick announcer, color guy. Absolutely, Thank you, Belle, appreciate you call very much. Talk to you soon.

Thank you.

Dan, call anytime.

We'll take a quick break. Coming right back on night Side. The only lines open right now are six one, seven. I got Tim, Bob and Joe.

Uh.

If I get through them, I might be able to get to you. If you call six months, the nine, three, ten thirty back on Nightside. We will change topics at ten o'clock that, I promise you, and we're going to be talking with the Israeli console General here in New England. My guest is a console general, uh Benny SHARONI. And we're going to talk about the Middle East for a little bit, and then we're going to talk about violence, political violence in America. Too much of it and too

You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WZ Boston's news radio.

Well, let's keep rolling.

He's going to go to Tim and Ruber and Tim, what do you think about the Rapie devonstrate.

Well, I'll tell you Raffie Devils is a great ballplayer.

He can hit, no doubt about that.

He can wake up at three o'clock in the morning and hit.

That's right.

Anything with the trade, with the trade. I don't know if you know this, but yeah, right, number eighth of the sock h His grandson plays in San Francisco night.

Oh no, that Mike absolutely sure played Clay in the college ball down down south.

He was he was playing at Vanderbilt really and the first time he played a Samway Park, Yas was there and his mother and father were there, and he hit a home run.

Yep, I think he had about the first pitch that.

I think Yas had the ability to throw out the first pitch that day.

That's right, that's right.

He Now. I'm a big baseball man. I played baseball, football, baseball, ran track. But this isn't about me. It's about Rafiel Devis Now. I think his contract is for two hundred and eighty four million guaranteed three thirty.

Three thirty yep, and they've already gone through it a couple of years. So this I think it's two fifty is left. So the Giants have assumed two hundred and fifty million dollars to pay off.

The balance of his contract.

Jewelmber the movie with Tom Who's and Cuba Goodies Junior, show me the money?

Yep.

Sure they're showing them the money. Good for them, Well.

The Red Sox decided to get rid of them. It's a big gamble for the Red Sox. I don't think they got much in return, so we'll we'll have to see how it works out. If the Red Sox play better baseball in the second half of the season, then it'll be considered a success. If they don't, it will be considered a mistake.

Right.

I think they got two pitches, right, young guys. Baseball is eighty five percent nine percent pitching. And anyhow, and the long one I love Cora Cora anyhow, and the long one. We'll see what the pitching does.

Well, we'll see both. Neither of them have been outstanding. They're oh, they're they're they're they're a couple of pitchers. But you know, we'll have to see. I mean, let's see what happens by the end of the season, and we will. We'll do something on this sometime towards the end of September. Hey, Tim, thanks so much for the call as always, my friend, Thank you so much.

And can I say one more thing? Sure, go ahead, and yeah, I called you on your OFFI a number on Bob's Day and I said, Happy Father's Day. You're a great father.

I was. I was about to thank you for that that message. I appreciated him right back at you, Tim, Okay, thank.

You, my friend.

Keep up a good work. Thank you, talk to you.

Let's keep rolling. He gonna go to Bob in California. Bob is not a raffie Devers guy. I don't think, Hey Bob next to a nightside haw wayre.

You Dan doing well? Hope you're doing okay too.

Hope you are great.

To hear your voice, thank you.

Likewise, yes, and you're correct, And the bottom line is okay. Devers is lucky, very lucky. So the guy like me is not general manager. It's not Craig Brizil because I would have called him in and said, okay, you're refusing to be d h and then recently, he refused to play for a space and I would have said to him, you, just what did your contract? Because you're refusing to play the contract is voided and I want to cut him.

Well, you would have saved two hundred and fifty dollars, I guess, assuming that the Major League Baseball Players Association didn't sue you, but you probably bought yourself a lawsuit.

Persol did the right thing. In my opinion, he did the right thing. Just get rid of him. I agree with the New York caller, he's a cancer. Okay. The player does not decide. They don't decide where they play. Imagine if players, Imagine if all twenty five players every night decided, oh, I'm going to play this position or that position. Okay, I get it.

There's there's a lot of there's a lot of support for Craig Breslow here on the program. I think I think the majority of the callers are are not favorably inclined towards mister Devers.

Devers. The New York caller is right, Devers is a cancer to the team. Good luck to the Giants. Okay, different sport. But Bill Black, oh, he schoosed to talk about teamwork. Okay, and if you're not me oriented, and that includes members of the Boston Red Sox, get rid of them.

Okay, all right.

Shut all right, thank you, Bob. Talk soon about soon there you Okay, Joe and Belmont, Joe, you're gonna wrap the our office.

Go ahead, Joe'll only be seventy seconds. I think the trade is going to hurt the Red Sox offense. And I got a trivia question, Jim Womberg nineteen sixty seven. Who were the three Red Sox second basement and they were all good hitters.

Reggie Smith here was an on field opening He was the opening day second Basement in nineteen sixty seven. Mike Andrews. You asked for three names, so I'm gonna give you Red Smith, Mike Andrews. And I'm not sure who the third one was. Who's the third one?

Chuck showing Jerry no.

No no no no no no no no no.

Shilling came up and see with Yastremsky played two years with the Red Sox, was out of baseball by sixty three and ended up as a teacher. And when the Red Sox opened the nineteen sixty seven season, Chuck Shilling was teaching at a Long Island High school.

I saw Jim Bunny pitch you no hitro like you did.

Fifty eight against the Red Sox. Yeah, Tigers against against for the Tigers against the Red Sox. Ted Williams was the last hitter. Flew out to al k Line.

I got L K lines autograph. You know how he signed his name, yep O K K and a line, right, I got it.

That's a good one. Don't leave, don't lose that one. That's a Hall of Fame one. Hey, Joe, great call. I love your questions. Double check yourself on Chuck Shilling. He was done by sixty three or sixty four. Might have gotten half a season with the Mets.

Jesus loves you, Dan, I know that.

I know that. Thank you, Joe, appreciate it very much.

God Puss right back at you.

Good night.

Okay, we've done with this. When we get back on the other side, we're going to be talking with the Israeli Console General Benny Sharon SHARONI about what's going on between Israel and Iran. And I think most of you know whose side I'm on on that one, and I hope most of you are on the same side, we'll be back on night side with Consul General Benni Sharoni right after the ten o'clock news here on Nightside,