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It's Father's Day, and Dad is tired of your drama. That is, if Dad is Red Sox GM Craig Breslow and you are Red Sox DH Rafael Devers.

And that's probably where the father/son analogy should end because Breslow just made Devers someone else's problem, dealing him to the Giants for left-hander Kyle Harrison, right-hander Jordan Hicks, outfield prospect James Tibbs and low-level minor-league reliever Jose Bello.

Perhaps it's not fair to call Devers a "problem" given the kind of numbers he's put up this year. For reference:

player headshot
Rafael Devers DH
SF San Francisco • #16 • Age: 28
2025 Stats
AVG
.272
HR
15
RBI
58
OBP
.401
OPS
.905
AB
272

Those are enough to make him the No. 2 or 3 third baseman in Fantasy, depending on your scoring format. But see, I have to specify "in Fantasy" because Devers isn't playing third base in real life. That's the source of the strife, in fact.

A bout with shoulder inflammation last year brought into focus just what a liability he was there defensively. The Red Sox then signed Alex Bregman before the start of spring training, ostensibly to play second base, but it gave them an easy out when Devers reported to spring training with lingering soreness in his shoulders. Devers would be their DH for now, and while he initially balked at the idea, he was eventually persuaded.

But the "for now" was always understood, so when first baseman Triston Casas was lost to a season-ending knee injury, it seemed like Devers would jump at the chance to play the field again (albeit on the opposite side of the diamond), particularly as a way to get top prospect Roman Anthony to the majors by freeing up the DH spot. Instead, he balked again -- and in a way that seemed particularly petty.

"In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn't going to play any other position but DH," Devers said through a translator on May 8. "They put me in this situation, and they told me that they didn't want to allow me to play any other position. Now, I think they should do their jobs, essentially, and hit the market and look for another player."

Oh, they hit the market, all right, but not in the way Devers expected.

What he wasn't counting on, perhaps, was that the 10-year, $313.5 million contract the Red Sox gave him last year wasn't the kind that would normally go to a DH. They thought they were locking down a third baseman at the time, perhaps with an eye on moving Devers to first base toward the end of his career. But if he's unable to play third base anymore and unwilling to play first base now, well, committing that much money over that many years to a full-time DH just isn't a great allocation of resources.

So that's the backstory, but you're probably wondering why a Fantasy Baseball writer hasn't gotten into the on-the-field implications of this deal yet. You're tired of the drama, too!

Allow me, then, to address the three most pertinent questions.

How will this affect Devers?

My guess is not much. The Giants already have a standout defensive third baseman locked up long-term in Matt Chapman, and while he's currently on the IL with a hand sprain, he's not expected to miss more than a few weeks. Devers has already expressed his unwillingness to move to first base to one organization, so surely the Giants aren't naive enough to think they'll persuade him otherwise.

You might wonder if next year is a possibility, and I would acknowledge that it is except for the fact that the Giants top prospect, Bryce Eldridge, is himself a first baseman. I suppose we can't discount the possibility of Eldridge shifting back to right field, the position where he made his professional debut as an 18-year-old in 2023, but I would say that now more than ever, it seems likely that Devers' future in Fantasy is restricted to DH. And that's an unfortunate development for the 28-year-old.

Ah, but what about the venue change? Doesn't Oracle Park figure to throttle Devers' production? Well, it does have a reputation as a pitcher's park, and that reputation is well-earned. But Fenway Park, for all the attention the Green Monster gets in left field, isn't the friendliest park for left-handed power given how deep the fence is in right. Statcast suggests that Devers would actually have two more home runs if he had played every game at Oracle this year than if he had played every game at Fenway, and if you apply that same hypothetical to his entire career, the home run total comes out about even.

What Devers may lose by leaving Fenway is the BABIP advantage that comes from banging balls off the Green Monster. His career batting average at home is .292 compare to .267 on the road, and for this year, those numbers are .296 and .246. Of course, his xBA this year is .273, which is basically right where his batting average has been the past three years, and that's designed to be a venue-neutral metric. Maybe Devers' ceiling and floor both drop a bit in San Francisco, but I don't suspect the experience of rostering him will change that much.

What does this do for the Red Sox?

I've mentioned that having Devers shift to first base would have cleared a spot for top prospect Roman Anthony, and you may be wondering how that's the case if Anthony is already on the major-league roster. Well, Anthony only joined the Red Sox because right fielder Wilyer Abreu hit the IL with an oblique injury last week, but Abreu nearly avoided the IL entirely and is already back to swinging the bat. He'll likely return in just a matter of days, at which point the Red Sox would be back to square one with Anthony.

Removing Devers from the equation makes the point moot. Now, they can rotate each of their four outfielders --- Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafela, in addition to Abreu and Anthony -- through the DH spot as needed. They still have an opening at first base, but perhaps when the overachieving Abraham Toro eventually folds, they'll take Devers' advice and hit the market. The Anthony problem was the more pressing one, and 21-year-old joins Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer in the formation of a new core sans Devers.

But does forfeiting their best hitter mean the Red Sox are giving up on this season even though they've won five in a row and are back over .500? Well, not if Anthony delivers on his potential right away. I would say it lowers the probability of what was already a low-probability playoff push, but it doesn't foreclose it, especially when you consider that they got some helpful pieces in return.

What about the other players in the deal?

I'll only go as far as to call those pieces "helpful," though. A return of Harrison, Hicks, Tibbs and Bello isn't the sort you'd expect for a player of Devers' stature, and that's the main reason why Red Sox fans are upset right now. But remember, it wasn't so much the player that they traded as the contract. Devers is overpromised and overpaid for what amounts to a full-time DH, and the Giants are taking on all the years and money remaining on the deal. The Red Sox were effectively asking for a do-over on the contract, and the return they got, while not mind-blowing, is better the compensation pick they would have gotten by letting Devers walk.

Harrison is the biggest prize in the short-term, and seeing as he's under team control for 4 1/2 more years, he may turn out to be a long-term prize as well. It kind of depends how the Red Sox plan to implement him. The Giants were torn between using him as a starter and as a reliever but have been using him as a starter most recently. The 23-year-old left-hander has pitched to a 4.48 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 across 182 2/3 major-league innings, but he's a former top prospect who averaged 14.4 K/9 across his minor-league career. And there are signs that he's begun to turn the corner this year, as Nick Pollack of Pitcher List explains:

Why is he so curious about what the Red Sox morph Harrison into? Because they've led the way in broadening the arsenals of fastball-reliant pitchers whose fastballs aren't quite good enough on their own. Harrison fits this description to a tee and theoretically regains some sleeper appeal with this move.

As for the others, Hicks has made some starts over the past couple years but will probably serve in middle relief with the Red Sox, which is ultimately where the Giants decided he was best suited. Bello is a low-level minor-leaguer who has mostly pitched in relief so far and isn't of much Fantasy interest.

The prize of this deal, even more so than Harrison, may be Tibbs, who the Giants selected with the 13th pick in the draft last year. (You know how I said the Red Sox return in this trade is better than a compensatory pick? That would be true even if Tibbs was the only one they acquired, just going by his draft stock.) The 22-year-old is batting .245 with 12 homers and an .857 OPS in 56 games at High-A. That batting average may seem underwhelming, but he stands out for his pitch recognition and bat-to-ball skills, having nearly as many walks (41) as strikeouts (45) so far. In other words, it's a profile that portends to even more offensively that he's delivered so far, and he may be ready to contribute to the Red Sox as early as next year.