The Red Sox and Grizzlies Make Stunning Trades on Father’s Day

It’s not often that trades between sports teams catch us completely off guard. Usually there are weeks of rumors ahead of the deal because we know that a player is on the trade block or just know that it makes sense for a losing team to trade away its star player who has just a few months left on his contract. That trend might be reversing, though. Not only did we get blindsided by the insane Luka Doncic trade over the winter, but on Sunday the Red Sox shocked the baseball world by trading Rafael Devers to the Giants.

It had been known that Devers and the Red Sox weren’t on great terms after the team asked him to move to designated hitter upon acquiring Alex Bregman. After the season started, Boston had to ask Devers to change positions again since its regular first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury. Devers never ended up playing first base for Boston, but no one thought the team would go so far as to trade him away. The Red Sox might have been disappointing compared to preseason expectations, but they were still in the thick of a Postseason race and Devers was hitting .272/.401/.504 with 15 home runs and 58 RBI. The star slugger was also in the second year of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract. Surely this little argument about what position to play was just a bump in the road.

Nope. Boston sent Devers to San Francisco on Sunday night. The Giants will take care of the entire contract and send southpaw starter Kyle Harrison to Boston along with flamethrowing swingman Jordan Hicks, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and Rookie League pitcher Jose Bello. Harrison has a lot of potential, but in 24 starts last year he had a 4.56 ERA and 1.34 WHIP, so he’s far from a finished product. Hicks has been in the majors for six years now, and he’s always been intriguing because he throws harder than almost anyone, but he still doesn’t prevent runs at a high level. I like Tibbs a lot because he was just drafted last season and is already showing a promising strikeout-to-walk ratio in the minors to go with 12 home runs this season. Bello is only 20 years old, but he has 28 strikeouts and just three walks in 18 innings pitched this year.

It’s an underwhelming prospect package, but the Red Sox were clearly eager to get out of the Devers business. They did not want to be stuck with a player for nine years who they clearly saw as being selfish. This is a guy that the Red Sox were building their franchise around, so if he wasn’t going to be a good leader, it was time to get out, no matter where the team was in the standings. The Giants are a big winner if they can get along with their new star player. With Matt Chapman recently going in the injured list, San Francisco was trying to keep pace with the Dodgers while relying on Willy Adames and his .624 OPS in the middle of the lineup. Devers will provide a huge boost to the offense.

Earlier in the day, the Memphis Grizzlies agreed to send Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round draft picks, and a first-round picks swap. The internet’s first reaction seemed to be, “The Magic gave up HOW many first-round picks for Desmond Bane?!” I was thinking that as well, but it’s pretty comparable to what the Knicks gave up for Mikal Bridges, and Bane was better last year than Bridges was in his final year with Brooklyn. He’s not a household name, but Bane is an efficient scorer who can do a little bit of everything. He averaged 19 points, five assists, and six rebounds per game last season while shooting 48 percent from the field, 39 percent from beyond the arc, and 89 percent from the stripe. The Magic were the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA this season, so that skill in particular is a key factor in the Bane acquisition.

Brian Windhorst explains that getting out of KCP’s contract is another benefit for Orlando, while the Grizzlies are looking to push back their window of contention after getting swept by Oklahoma City in the first round of the Playoffs.

Windhorst suggests that the Bane trade could be the start of a major rebuild in Memphis, but Tim Bontemps believes that the team is still interested in getting extensions done for Jaren Jackson and Ja Morant.

Sources told ESPN that the Grizzlies are not looking to deal either of their two remaining franchise cornerstones. The team has spent the past several months clearing salary cap space to complete a renegotiation and extension of Jackson’s contract this offseason, preventing him from hitting free agency in 2026. The belief is that an extension will get done, sources said. But the Bane trade gives Memphis an avenue to give Jackson even more on that deal and lock him in long term.

Bontemps also says that the Magic sees itself as a major threat to win the East with Jayson Tatum presumably out for the season. Even with Tatum on the court for most of the Eastern Semifinals this year, the conference proved to be more wide open than many people previously thought. It’s not hard to imagine Orlando being next year’s Indiana with Bane joining the young and energetic core of Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs.

I hate giving up so many picks for a guy who isn’t a superstar, but it’s clear that the Magic already has some young pieces in place and thinks it can challenge for the East title right away. The move definitely makes me worry about my Knicks’ ability to return to the East Finals.

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