The Giants’ Rafael Devers trade looked bold when they made it, but the financial hangover could last much longer than most fans want to think about.
Devers is under contract through 2033, when he’ll be 36, and San Francisco signed up for the full weight of the deal Boston had already put in place. So far, the numbers haven’t made anyone feel better about it. He’s hitting .242/.306/.458 with 15 home runs and 44 runs batted in, and while there’s still a path to 30 homers, that stat line hasn’t matched the kind of impact the Giants were chasing.
The bigger problem is what comes after the playing days. Because the contract includes deferred money, the Giants are tied to payments well into the future. As it stands, they’ll owe Devers $4.2 million in 2035, then $7.5 million every year after that through 2043.
That’s the part that turns a bad baseball decision into a long-term headache. Even paying Blake Snell deferred money is one thing; this is another level entirely, especially if the trade keeps looking worse over time. That possibility isn’t hard to imagine if Kyle Harrison keeps pitching like an ace, James Tibbs develops into something with the Dodgers, and the Giants continue to struggle with Devers in the middle of it.
The timing only makes the whole thing feel more familiar. Yesterday was Bobby Bonilla Day, the annual reminder that the Mets are still cutting checks to Bobby Bonilla long after his playing career ended. Bonilla, whose last season was in 2001, will keep getting paid until 2035.
And with a lockout looming this offseason, MLB has already floated the idea of eliminating deferred money in the next CBA. It’s not hard to see why. Teams have pushed that trick as far as it can go, especially the Dodgers, and the Giants may be stuck living with the consequences of one of those deals for years.
Maybe San Francisco finds a desperate team willing to take Devers on. If not, they’re the ones who may be paying him into the 2040s, and that would make the trade look even rougher than it already does.
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Heliot Ramos Just Forced A Giants Outfield Conversation Again
Heliot Ramos is back in the Giants lineup after a six-week absence with a right quad strain, and the early signs have been encouraging. Following a seven-game rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento, he returned to the big club and wasted little time making an impact, adding power and run production in his first few games back.
His return has also forced another look at the outfield mix, with the Giants working Ramos into right field while Jung Hoo Lee remains in center. For a club trying to settle on the best alignment, Ramos bat makes the conversation harder to ignore, and the next few games should tell a lot about how permanent this arrangement might become. [Read more 🡒]