"Baseball is a largely individual sport masquerading as a collective endeavor. On-field chemistry matters little. One player's performance doesn't materially effect the performance of anyone else. And the fit of a player's particular skill set relative to those of his teammates matters a little bit, but not much. Thus, putting together a winning team isn't all that complicated: you assemble as many talented players on the roster as you possibly can."
"Red Sox management bungled the Alex Bregman signing vis-à-vis Devers from day one (or even before day one, since the problems started long before Bregman was ever signed, as management continued to signal that Devers was the team's third baseman and Bregman might even play second). Devers responded to the situation in an immature way and displayed an undeniably shitty attitude. But he still did exactly what he was being paid to do with the bat."
"And I don't buy for a second that his trade was somehow a catalyst to better play. The Red Sox' second half surge was fueled by the pitching of Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito, and the offensive surges by Ceddanne Rafaela and Trevor Story, not by the fact that they swapped out Devers for an inferior bat in Masataka Yoshida."
Baseball functions largely as an individual sport, so assembling the most talented players is the primary route to winning. Front offices should add more talent than is removed. Red Sox management mishandled the Alex Bregman signing relative to Devers, signaling positional uncertainty and prompting Devers to respond with poor attitude despite continuing elite hitting. Devers kept producing offensively, but was traded for Masataka Yoshida, an inferior bat. The team's second-half surge stemmed from pitching improvements (Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito) and offensive contributions from Ceddanne Rafaela and Trevor Story, not from the Devers trade. Retaining Devers would likely have increased the 2025 win total.
Read at Over the Monster
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