Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Rafael Devers Traded to the GIANTS! - Emergency Podcast (6/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

The Red Sox have traded Rafael Devers to the Giants in exchange for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs and Jose Bello (2:40)! ... How does this affect Devers' Fantasy value (9:45)? ... The Giants lineup should look great once Matt Chapman is back (14:23)! How much to spend in NL-only leagues? ... From the Red Sox perspective, Roman Anthony should stick around now (18:56). ... What about the Red Sox return (23:07)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠, ⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠ ⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠, ⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What just happened? Welcome into an emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today with a Father's Day blockbuster. I am Frank Stamphel joined by Chris Towers. Rafael Devers has been traded to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs, who is a first round pick in last year's draft, and pitching prospect Jose Beio. there are many different ways to talk about this trade, Chris,

and we will get to the fantasy implications. But this is a landscape-altering deal. We know that Devers and the Red Sox have had their issues this season. He's also one of the best hitters in baseball and has been one of the best hitters for the past five, six, seven years. And he is joining a great baseball team in one of the best divisions in baseball, one that includes the Dodgers, the Giants, the Padres, who are all like three games separated by each other right now.

So a true blockbuster trade from a real life perspective. Again, we'll get to the fantasy stuff. But Chris, just your immediate reaction seeing this come across the timeline. It was one of those ones where the first time I saw it, I had to double check. Because it came completely out of nowhere is the biggest thing. I mean, you know, in the larger picture of the last six months, it doesn't come out of nowhere. it felt inevitable that something like this would happen. But it just like the Red Sox just swept the Yankees.

And then they traded their franchise player. I mean, I don't know if he's their best player, but certainly the face of the franchise at this point. And it's, you know, it raises a lot of questions with the Red Sox about the management of the team and how they are handling the managing part of it, right? Like you can, they've developed players well. They've signed some smart contracts, all that stuff. But like the managing, the managing of people seems to be a big problem in Boston right now. And it's been a problem really for six months with Raphael Devers, if you believe the reporting that

they, you know, told him all offseason, we're not going to sign a third baseman. You're playing third base. You're our third baseman. Don't listen to those rumors. And then they changed. And then they changed their mind at the last minute without telling him. Like it just, it raises a lot of questions for me about the, the front office's ability to put everything together and, and handle people and get the most out of them. It's a bad trade in terms of value for Raphael Devers.

And the only thing that makes it a defensible trade is that the, the, the relationship seems to have gone completely south there. And so that's the only way you can look at is, well, I guess they had. to get rid of him. But it's a bad return for a player of Raphael Devers caliber.

And I'll, I'll, I'll get the two biggest fan bases in baseball mad at me with a couple of comments here. One, Happy Father's Day to Garrett Cole, whose daddy is no longer in the, in the division.

Come on. That's for you, Yang, fans. Gotta get that one in there. Well, Garrett Cole is hurt too. Come on, Chris. Kicking him while he's down. Geez. And two.

the Red Sox over the past five years have traded, I would say two clear-cut Hall of Famers. And Raphael Devers, I think has a chance. I don't know if it's, I don't think I'd say it's more than a coin flip at this point. But if he ends up in the Hall of Fame in 15 years, I wouldn't be shocked. And they will have Connor Wong, Von Grissom, and whatever they get out of Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks. and Tibbs. I can't, what's his first name? James Tibbs.

James Tibbs, yeah. That's not great. It's not what you want when you trade mooky bets Chris Sey on Raphael Devers in the span of five years. And that's not even counting Xander Bogart's walking in free agency. The Red Sox, look, they've got a ton of talent. They seem to have smart people running a lot of the baseball ops. They might. end up winning a World Series with this core.

But man, everything feels really rudderless in Boston over the last five years or so. Just all the three straight trade deadlines where they did nothing, didn't buy, didn't sell, did nothing. And haven't been spending money. I mean, this is the Red Sox we're talking about, right? Yeah, it's, I don't know. The vibes are bad.

And winning can cure that. And look, this trade should make it easier for them to get everybody who needs playing times and playing time. And maybe that'll be the most important thing that comes out of this. And clearly they didn't want him around them. But it just, everything feels very aimless with the Boston Red Sox right now. And on the giant side, I mean, look, they've been begging anyone to take their money for about the last five years. And they've had to settle a lot in free agency.

They settled for Matt Chapman. They settled for Willi Adamas. those were not their primary targets those off seasons. I don't know if Raphael Devers would have gotten eight years, 240 million if he was a free agent at the end of this season. That's what's remaining on his contract. But it's not like the contract is terrible for a 29-year-old who's one of the best hitters in baseball. And this is a team that every marginal win they can seek out is a big deal because they are very much a fringe playoff team right now. and, you know, even if Rafael Devers is just a four-win player like he's been so far,

those two wins the rest of the way could be a huge deal for the Giants. That could be, that could very much be the difference between making and missing the playoffs. So I think it's a great trade for them. They gave up, I think very little of long-term value, and they got one of the best hitters in baseball. And what I'm fascinated by is do the Giants just say you're RDH and we won't worry about it and next year we'll talk? They're set at third base. He's not going to play third base in San Francisco. But do they have a conversation about him playing first base this year?

Do they call up Bryce Eldridge at some point? He hasn't been great since getting promoted to AAA. But, you know, that's another interesting thing. They've got Dominic Smith playing first base right now. Could Raphael Devers end up playing first base for the Giants? I'm very interested to see how much of that was a, I'm not going to play the field versus I'm not going to play the field for you. Yeah.

That's the question I have with Raphael Devers. So it's a lot of interesting aspects to this. And I think I love the trade for the Giants. That's for sure. Look, just hitting on the Red Sox side of it again, I know I shouldn't say this as a Yankee fan and I'm supposed to be a Red Sox hater but man, I do feel for your fan base today.

I mean, I know that the writing was kind of on the wall. I was still shocked to see this happen. Oh, absolutely. The timing of it too. I mean, the Red Sox have won five games in a row. They just swept the Yankees. I know their record overall is still underwhelming, at least based on where some of us

on this podcast thought they would be. I thought they would win the division. They've won eight out of ten games, so they're trending in the right direction. The vibes were actually kind of good because they called up the big prospects here, and everyone's kind of, all right, we got the youth movement up,

we've got, we still have Raphael Devers, and despite his slow start, I mean, you look at the numbers now, they're exactly where they should be. He's hitting 272, a 401 on base percentage, 15 homers, 58 RBI, and a 905 OPS. Just think about the first week or two where we were with Devers to where we are now,

and he's, once again, is one of the best hitters in baseball right now. So just a massive, massive loss for the Red Sox. Let's talk about this more, from a fantasy perspective here, Chris. I think trying to figure out the position is a great one. There's no way for us to know right now. It's just pure speculation.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Giants don't really want to ruffle any feathers. And they say, look, man, come in here. We're not going to ask you to play the field. You play wherever you want. We just want you to come in and mash. That is what we want you to do. Want you to be happy. That's it.

Maybe in the offseason we talk about, all right, look, you have a whole offseason to learn first base for fantasy. we don't want him to be util only for next season for fantasy. So obviously, like, yeah, I would love for him to play first base or anywhere for that matter to gain eligibility. I do wonder how much power he's going to lose here, Chris, because obviously, 222 career home runs, regular and postseason combined. If he played all of his career games in San Francisco, that number would be 200.

So not like he would lose a massive amount, but Oracle Park very clearly is a venue that saps left-handed power over the past three years. is their 27th and left-handed home run factor. Now, look, if you have huge power, it doesn't really matter. Like, we saw Barry Bonds, who was obviously like a freak of nature, and Devers hits the ball as hard as anybody. But I have to imagine he's going to at least lose some home runs here. Like maybe the expectation coming into the season is 35-ish home runs,

if he's playing in Boston or whatever. And maybe now it's closer to like 28 to 30 in San Francisco. I'll be honest, I'm less worried about the home runs for Raphael Devers, because Fenway is a good park for left-handed hitters. It's the by park factors over the past three years, it's the second best in baseball. But it's actually a pretty bad park for left-handed home runs. It is 22nd in left-handed home run park factor,

San Francisco 27. So, you know, not a huge gap there. And like you said, I think the expected home runs for his career at Fenway, 202, at Oracle Park, it'd be 200. So I don't think that's the bigger problem. I think the bigger problem is just what Fenway tends to do. Fenway really more than any park except for course field inflates batting average.

And that's what Raphael Devers stands to lose with this move. You look at his career numbers. He is a 292 career hitter at home, a 267 career hitter on the road. he hits for a lot more power away from Fenway. But if he doesn't have, you know, the batting average inflation of Fenway and he has the tough home run park, I could see this being a general downgrade

for Rafael Devers in half his games. The one thing that Oracle Park does do well is it boosts singles and it boosts triples for left-handed hitters. That makes sense. It's a really deep right field with a big wall. I don't think Raphael Devers is going to hit a bunch of triples.

at Oracle Park, but I could see it being a good park for him to hit a bunch of doubles in. And if the home runs are fairly similar, like, I think I would downgrade Raphael Devers a little bit with this move, but not as much as you think, because Fenway primarily is a tough park

for left-handed power as well. So I think on the whole, it's a slight downgrade, but not a huge one. I also do wonder just the human element of all this. And again, And it's kind of like the first year of a player in a mega contract in a new city. Again, it's not really anything that we can quantify. It's just, you know, things that we've seen over the years.

Sometimes a player struggle, sometimes not. But, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if, okay, his first time playing out of Fenway, calling Fenway his home park, maybe there's an adjustment period here. Maybe he struggles a little bit. Again, it's unknowing. Like, we can't really say that. It's just, okay, there's a human element here. and maybe he struggles out of the gate in San Francisco.

That's obviously something that can happen. It introduces some risk. But I also think, is that going to be tougher than what Raphael Devers has been going through the past three months already? You know, like with the friction with the team, the semi-public feud, like, that's tough to go through too. And, you know, we have no idea.

Like, is, was he, like, he's having a better season this year than he was last year. Is that because of spite? Is that because he's just a DH and he doesn't have to worry? Like we have no idea what the answer to these questions are. So I think it's worth noting. I think there's increased volatility. Anytime a player is switching leagues,

anytime they're switching home parks, we just, it introduces some uncertainty. How will Raphael ever see the ball in San Francisco? We don't know. Like it's just, it's relatively unknowable. He is the caliber of hitter where I don't know.

how much I care about that stuff, you know? Mm-hmm. Like, I think he should still be really, really, really good. I mostly agree with that. I did want to quickly, I can't imagine he's played many games in Oracle Park in his career, but let's see if I can pull this up pretty quickly here. Career splits in Oracle. I think he's had like 12 at bats.

It looks like. Yeah, that would be my guess, yeah. Not much to go on. And I think it's like an 0.83 batting average. So I'm not going to put too much stock into that, but again, it's just the caliber of hitter he is. I would mostly bet on him being fine, but again, it does introduce a bit of an unknown factor here for Raphael Devers.

The potential lineup, when everybody is healthy in San Francisco, you're looking at Junghu Lee, Elliott-Ramos, Raphael Devers, Matt Chapman, Wiliadamus. That is very serviceable as a top five. And if they call up Bryce Eldridge at some point, their first base prospect with a limited power potential, then obviously that just adds another option there and another piece of upside for this Giants lineup.

So much improved, obviously, all around here. We don't know where he's going to play. Again, we kind of touched on that. In NL only leagues, Chris, I know there's not many of them to play. But for our NL only audience out there, you just spend every last dollar of FAB to get Rafael Devers. I can't imagine a bigger player coming over to the National League this season. It's possible.

Like I can't say it won't happen, but I don't. One, you're getting an extra month and a half out of them versus guys who are traded at the deadline. Right. So there's no real point in keeping your powder dry when, I don't know, maybe some marginally better player than Rafael Devers is available. But that doesn't, you won't get the same impact out of them. So yeah, I think whatever your max bid, you got to throw it out there. there's not going to be a more impactful player than Raphael Devers, given the timing of it as well.

Taking a look at the Giants rotation, they do lose out on Kyle Harrison, who was supposed to start here on Sunday night, and I actually just saw that he's going to be... He went through about five minutes before his start. He's going to be option to AAA by Boston as well, so it won't just directly go into the Red Sox rotation. Verlander should be back soon for the Giants,

so I think he mostly occupies that spot. I saw some people in the YouTube chat asking about Carson Wisenhunt, who is a pitching prospect for the Giants. He struggled recently. He has an ERA over six over his last four starts at AAA. So maybe he's an option at some point later in the season, but I don't think that he's going to make an impact for the Giants right away here. Let's take a quick break.

When we return, we'll talk about this trade from the Red Sox perspective. We'll do that right after this. Let's talk about this trade from a Red Sox perspective. And again, the return, if we're being honest, it's just not that good. So Raphael Devers traded to the Giants in exchange for Jordan Hicks. Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs, who was a first round pick in last year's draft, and pitching prospect Jose Beaux, who's 20 years old.

He's pretty far away here. Nobody has used the word salary dump, and I saw Jeff Passon on Sunday Night Baseball talking about this deal. He kind of talked about it like a salary dump. It's a salary dump. I mean, what he said was, hey, the Giants, the Red Sox opened up a bunch of financial space with this deal. Now they can go out and be aggressive on.

whoever they want to be, which, I mean, by all accounts, they were really aggressive on Juan Soto. I don't know that he's ever going to go there, but maybe they're a player for Kyle Tucker in the offseason or like Framber Valdez. I don't know what it's going to be, but obviously they open up a lot of money on this side. I think from a fantasy perspective,

the biggest thing from the Red Sox side here, I guess everyone just kind of loses ancillary value because when you take a bat of Devers caliber out, you're losing counting stats all around. but this likely ensures that Roman Anthony is just going to stick around Chris, even when Willi or Brayu's back from the I.L. Yeah, that would be the hope

is that it just kind of clears up some of the glut that the Red Sox have had. Now, I think it could be easy to overstate how much of the glut this will clear up because Masataki Yoshita has been able to swing a bat since spring training. He just hasn't been playing because he hasn't been able to throw. But if DH is cleared,

do they just call Masataki Yoshita up and he just is the everyday DH against Ritees, well then we're not entirely back at square one, but it's not far off. So look, they still have some juggling to do, I guess I would say. And does this suddenly mean Marcel O'Meyer and Roman Anthony are everyday players?

Probably not. They've been sitting against a lot of lefties. I think they both only started one out of the three games against the Yankees this weekend. Alice Cora pretty forcefully said that that's the plan moving forward, at least for now. And so I think a lot of the problems are still here. In a best case scenario,

I think Roman Anthony has a chance to just force the issue and play every day no matter what. And I think Marcela Meyer has the same upside. And both remain worth holding in all fantasy leagues because of that. But I don't think this just magically clears up all the logjam that the red Sox had. And so I think it could still be a little bit frustrating. Are they, are they really going to play Roman Anthony at DH full time when Willi Abraeus healthy?

Is it going to be like that DH spot is where they stick, Willier Abraeu, although he's a good defensive player. And so Saedon Raphaela and, you know, Jared Duran's not a DH. So it's just, the problem remains that there's just too many outfielders. If they don't want to give Roman Anthony just full-time D.H spots, maybe they will. Um, I would hope so. That's probably the best way to do it. But I'm just, I'm not sure how much this cleans up the glut, unfortunately.

I wonder, and I don't think the Red Sox are just going to start selling off all the pieces. Again, the timing is so weird. They won eight out of ten games. They're playing good ball right now. But, you know, we've kind of heard some rumblings about, you know, the Padres being interested in Jaron Duran. Does this open up another trade possibility? Maybe, yeah. I don't know.

Like, you know, maybe that would. certainly kind of fix everything. If they trade Jaron Duran for the Padres for, I have no idea what that trade would look like. Or if they ate some money on Trevor's story. It doesn't even have to be the Padres, by the way. I mean, it could be any team. Like, you know, we kind of-

Aaron makes sense for a lot of teams. We played matchmaker for the Mariners last off-season. I still think that makes a lot of sense for both sides there. Looking at the pieces that come back here, you know, Kyle Harrison, I already mentioned he's been an option to AAA. Maybe he makes an impact at some point here with the Red Sox. Jordan Hicks, I imagine he's out to the bullpen right now. I mean, it doesn't sound like either one of those guys gain value, right?

Going from a big venue like Oracle to a smaller place like Fenway. Yeah, I'm not a big believer in Kyle Harrison anyway. I will say he has shown some stuff lately. The fastball looks a lot better. He's averaging like 96 with it lately. And so if he can hit. sit 96 comfortably and consistently. There could be enough there with just a really good fastball to make it all work.

And the Red Sox pitching development has earned some positive reviews the last couple of years. But I think his slur was pretty mediocre. I think his change up is even worse. I would like to see them develop another breaking ball. Maybe they can figure that out. But he just, I don't know if Kyle Harrison has the pieces to be a consistent major league starter. And yeah, I'm just not a fan of his. I think Hicks is a good reliever and probably stretched as a starter.

The Red Sox have to like Tibbs a lot. He was the number 13 pick in last year's draft. He was taken one pick after the Red Sox picked. So maybe they liked him enough to maybe he was their guy if they didn't take. I can't remember. the guy that Braden Montgomery, the guy that traded the White Sox. You know, maybe they would have traded Tibbs. And look, you look at what they've done with Anthony and Meyer and especially Christian Campbell.

If they can do something similar with Tibbs, maybe that works out. And we look at this a lot differently in three years. But it doesn't look like a trade that makes them better in 2025. And I don't really see a lot of reason to think it makes them better in 2026 and beyond. If you look at what James Tibbs has done so far this season, in 56 games at High A, he's hitting 245 with a 377 on base. The plate discipline is definitely a big calling card for James Tibbs. 12 home runs, 857 OPS, lots of ground balls.

He's also a 22-year-old who played in college and he's at High A. So you would kind of think the numbers would be better than this. So maybe he just picks right up in High A or they place them at Double A and he's someone we could see later this season, early next season. I think next season is probably more likely. But again, I would have fought a better prospect here than James Tibbs. And maybe I'm selling him short, maybe he'll be all right. And then the other piece is Jose Beo, who is 20 years old.

He's currently playing in the Arizona Complex League, so he's really, really far away. Anything else to add, Chris, on the Red Sox side of this, I guess from a fantasy perspective before we wrap up? No, I mean, I think there's still a lot of moving pieces here. And I think this does make it a little easier for them to get everyone playing time if they want. But I don't know how much of my priority getting Roman Anthony and Marcel Amier in the lineup every single day is versus, you know, the Abraham Toro and Romney Gonzalez's platoon situations that they've been running. I know Toro's been playing more or less every day, but he's, you know,

someone comes out for him somewhere. So yeah, I don't, I don't know. I think it opens paths, but it's still, like you mentioned, feels like they might be a trade away from this roster really making sense. And even then, I don't know if it all makes sense. They still need a centerpiece. They just got rid of the centerpiece. So they need, look, if Anthony and Campbell and Meyer become all-stars, or if two of the three become all-stars and Gar-Crues, and Garretcher stays healthy,

none of this might matter. This might be a contending team within a year because they have so many young pieces and they have an ace and they could put a contending team around this court. Just giving up Raphael Devers and not getting more that you can feel confident in. It feels like a big miss to me.

I do want to mention, by the way, the Red Sox are playing the Giants in San Francisco this Friday. So, oh, man, talk about, awkward, that's going to be, wow, that's going to be tough. That's going to be a tough watch for a lot of Red Sox fans there. I also just want to address like this, like this, this thing where they're like, people are saying like, oh, they got $250 million off the books. Well, yes, they lost Raphael Devers. Like, they didn't just like not, like, they didn't just lose $250 million, but keep Raphael Devers. That was what they were going to pay Raphael Devers, who is one of the best

hitters in baseball. Now they do not have that $250 million that they're going to pay Rafael Devers. They also do not have Raphael Devers. So like, yes, it makes sense why they didn't get very much for him because the Giants took on his whole contract. But they lost Raphael Devers, you know? Like, that's a big deal. That's a really good player. I see some people in the chat defending this trade for a Red Sox perspective. If they go out and add a $30 million player this out, like if they go out and add Kyle Tucker, okay, fine. Kyle Tucker's a better player than Raphael Devers. But like, they haven't done that in five years.

Like, that wasn't that the whole thing with Mookie Betts that they needed to financially reset so they could go be a player in free agency? And they haven't added anyone in a big way lately. Like, it was Alex Bregman on a short term deal. Like, I don't know. I don't have a lot of confidence that the Red Sox as they are currently situated are going to take this and make it a win for them. Right now, it's clearly not a win. maybe they could turn it into a win in the future, but I don't have a ton of confidence in that.

I mean, Chris, these are probably the same people that were defending the Mookie Betts trade saying Connor Wong was an all-star catcher. Like, it's just, you line it up and the Mookie Betts trade, the Chris Sale trade, the Raphael Devers trade within a five-year span and having nothing to show for it.

It's, that's disheartening. I don't care like, what kind of fan you are, like, you are losing three of the, I don't know, 25 best players that have ever played for this team. Like, that's a big deal. They got, they got very little to show for it. That's, that's frustrating, man. And I'm not a Red Sox fan. But I, I want to see teams like the Red Sox competing. And this just, it doesn't feel like there's been any forward momentum in a long time in Boston. That's the biggest thing for me. It's just, it feels like they've been treading water since the last championship. And I'm all for defending teams and fandom. I mean, out of all three

of us on the podcast, I am probably the most into my team. Obviously, Scott loves the Braves. You love the Marlins. But like, you know, I love the Yankees. I don't defend every single move that they deal. In fact, I'm pretty critical anytime they do something that I don't like. And I think that's okay as a fan to be critical of your team. Maybe we're just way off here. Honestly, if you're a Red Sox fan and you're watching this, leave us a comment. Let us know what you think of the return here and whether or not you think this was actually an okay return for Rafael Devers, which again, the final trade. Devers traded over to the Giants in exchange for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs and pitching prospect Jose Bayou.

We're going to wrap there. For Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple. and we will be back again later tonight in like four hours. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.