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Rafael Devers Returns to Fenway After Contentious Trade

His first game back will reveal how Boston judges the Red Sox front office’s decision to send him to San Francisco.

Overview

  • Devers is scheduled to bat at Fenway on Friday in his first visit since the Red Sox traded him to the Giants on June 15, 2025.
  • The trade followed a spring training fight over positions after team officials moved Devers off third base and later asked him to play first, a request he said violated an earlier promise that he would be limited to designated hitter.
  • Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has publicly defended the move as a hard choice meant to improve the club’s long-term outlook.
  • Boston has largely prospered since the deal while most players acquired for Devers were later moved elsewhere, a sequence that has sharpened local criticism of the return.
  • Devers remains under a long contract through 2033, has produced mixed numbers for the Giants this season, and was reportedly shopped before the trade deadline, leaving his Fenway reception and its effect on Red Sox leadership under close watch.