Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said Monday that the club remains focused on winning this season despite Sunday's shocking Rafael Devers trade.
"This trade is in no way signifying us waving the white flag on 2025," Breslow said.
The Red Sox stunned the baseball world Sunday, dealing Devers to the San Francisco Giants in a five-player blockbuster.
The trade came after a tumultuous start to the campaign, with Devers bristling at the club's decision to move him off of third base to designated hitter after Boston signed Alex Bregman in the offseason. Devers also took issue with the Red Sox asking him to play first base after Triston Casas' season-ending injury.
"There were times during the course of conversations with Raffy's camp that they indicated that a fresh start would be best for both sides," Breslow said. "We were committed to working through this."
Many Red Sox fans took particular issue with the timing of the trade, which occurred after Boston swept a weekend series at Fenway Park with the New York Yankees to move above .500.
"The timing was absolutely not great," Breslow said.
Despite losing the team leader in home runs and RBIs, Breslow believes the Red Sox are positioned to be a better team moving forward.
"I do think there's a real chance that, at the end of the season, we're looking back and we've won more games than we otherwise would've," Breslow said.
Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy added that the team made the decision to trade Devers after it became clear the two sides weren't on the same page.
"I think it was pretty clear that we couldn't find an alignment with Raffy," Kennedy said. "We all worked at it over the last several months, starting with (manager) Alex Cora, Craig, and the staff ... all the way up to (owner) John Henry."
The Red Sox are starting rookie Kristian Campbell at designated hitter for Monday's series opener in Seattle against the Mariners.
Boston will then travel to San Francisco for a weekend series against the Giants and its first meeting with Devers since the trade.
