Boston Red Sox fans did not enjoy seeing Rafael Devers get traded to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Nor did his teammates.
Trevor Story, Jarren Duran and Walker Buehler each briefly spoke to media members prior to their series-opening matchup with the Seattle Mariners on Sunday. It’s wholly unsurprising that they all felt blindsided by the move, because… well, we all did.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Duran said, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. “It was a shock.”
“It comes at a weird time,” Story said, per Browne. “This is a brutal reminder that this game is a business.”
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Buehler admitted that from the outside perspective, it would be logical for Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to address the team but said they are not entitled to an explanation.
Garrett Crochet was no different from that group, but shared a similar sentiment to others in terms of how important moving on will be for the current iteration of the club,
“It was a shock, for sure, after the run that we just had this past week,” Crochet said, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “After having the day to process it, I think we’re just focused on moving forward as a group… I think that the front office doesn’t owe us an explanation. Quite frankly, what they’re doing is what’s best for the team and we have to respect that. I think as players it’s on us to just continue to do our job.”
Devers’ unwillingness to change positions and do what was best for the team, which has been pointed to as the primary factor for this trade, ultimately came back to cause a seizmic change in the clubhouse.
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Boston just seems to want to move on as quickly as possible.