SF Giants fleecing Red Sox in Rafael Devers trade just got even more hilarious

When the SF Giants swung a blockbuster trade for Boston Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers last year, it seemed like San Francisco did not have to give up a ton to land him. Now, Boston's haul from the trade looks even more paltry as they got rid of Jordan Hicks.

The Red Sox traded Hicks to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for minor league pitcher Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later with Chicago taking on the bulk of the salary left on Hicks' deal.

SF Giants continue to win the Rafael Devers trade

It's really not a huge surprise that the Red Sox were desperate to get Hicks off their hands. He was simply atrocious after Boston acquired him from San Francisco, pitching to a 8.20 ERA in 21 appearances which, unsurprisingly, did not thrill a notoriously brutal fanbase.

Hicks' steep fall from grace has been tough to watch. The Giants signed him ahead of the 2024 season with the intention of converting him from a reliever into a starter. That experiment looked brilliant a month into the 2024 season, but Hicks' body slowly wore down and his velocity dropped significantly. He was back in the bullpen by the end of the season.

The Giants decided to put him back in the rotation in 2025 and he struggled pretty much immediately. Hicks was eventually replaced by Hayden Birdsong in the rotation and was shortly thereafter included in the trade for Devers.

That means that of the four players the Giants sent to Boston in exchange for Devers, only Kyle Harrison and Jose Bello remain with the Red Sox.

James Tibbs III was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline last season in exchange for Dustin May who is now with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Essentially, the trade has now become a straight up trade of Harrison for Devers which does not seem all that bad from San Francisco's perspective.

Sure, Harrison could definitely develop into a solid big league pitcher. He could potentially even be an ace somewhere down the road.

But Devers is the type of hitter the Giants have sorely needed in their lineup for a long time. His power and presence in the middle of the order can be truly special as we saw at times last season.

The fact that Alex Bregman left the Red Sox in free agency only rubbed more salt into the wound as the Red Sox signing Bregman and forcing Devers to become a designated hitter is what started the whole saga that led to the split.

We will see how this trade looks years from now, but the fact that the Red Sox have already gotten rid of Hicks and Tibbs shows that the Giants probably got the bigger piece of pie in the deal.