Kyle Harrison's sharp Brewers decline flips script on SF Giants' Rafael Devers trade

There was a time earlier this season where it was completely rational for SF Giants fans to question the Rafael Devers trade. Heck, I was one of them. Devers was struggling and Kyle Harrison, who the Giants dealt to the Boston Red Sox in the trade before subsequently being dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers, looked like he was turning into an ace. Oh, how things can change.

Now, Devers is on an incredible heater and is putting up otherworldly numbers for San Francisco. It’s colored by the fact that he’s doing it in meaningless games, but it is still incredibly impressive and he looks nothing like the guy who was completely lost at the plate in April.

As for Harrison, the second half has really been a struggle for him. After he dominated the Giants over the course of 5 and 2/3 innings on June 2, recording 12 strikeouts total while striking out Rafael Devers three times, he lowered his ERA to 1.57 on the season. Now, his ERA is at 3.66 on the year.

Harrison missed a month due to left forearm tightness but since he came back in August he hasn’t looked right. He had a 5.01 ERA last month and didn’t make it beyond five innings in any of his starts. In his last two starts he has failed to make it out of the fourth inning in either of them. His velocity has also been dropping which was always a concern when he was in San Francisco.

The Devers trade looks much better for the Giants than it did a few months ago

Now the Brewers are considering moving him to the bullpen which may be a smart move ahead of the playoffs. His arm might be tired and the ailment that landed him on the IL may not have fully gone away so odds are Milwaukee will want to be cautious with its 25-year-old lefty.

It’s funny how things have totally flipped since earlier in the season. This doesn’t mean the Giants unequivocally won the trade since we could easily be back in a similar spot next year with Devers struggling and Harrison dealing while James Tibbs III continues to do scary things for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It should just serve as a reminder that baseball seasons are long and winding. While it’s easy to overreact, and I’m as guilty of that as anyone, these things will take years to fully play out. Maybe if Harrison faces Devers in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2028 NLCS with the Red Sox waiting to face the winner in the World Series then we will really find out who won the trade.

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