When the San Francisco Giants pulled off the blockbuster trade to land Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox last year, it already looked like a win for the Bay Area. Now, with the Red Sox offloading Jordan Hicks to the White Sox, that deal is aging even better for San Francisco.
Boston sent Hicks to Chicago in exchange for minor league pitcher Gage Ziehl and a player to be named later. The White Sox are also picking up most of what’s left on Hicks’ contract. For the Red Sox, it’s a clear sign they were ready to move on.
And it’s not hard to see why. Hicks struggled mightily in Boston, posting an 8.20 ERA over 21 appearances.
That’s a tough look in any market, but especially in Boston, where the fanbase doesn’t exactly hand out participation trophies. The right-hander’s stint in Beantown was brief and brutal.
Let’s rewind for a second. The Giants originally signed Hicks ahead of the 2024 season with an ambitious plan: convert the flamethrower from a late-inning reliever into a starting pitcher.
Early returns were promising. Hicks looked sharp through the first month of the season, and the experiment seemed like a stroke of genius.
But the physical toll started to show. His velocity dipped, his command wavered, and by the end of the year, he was back in the bullpen.
Still, the Giants gave it another shot in 2025, putting Hicks back into the rotation. This time, the results weren’t there from the jump.
He struggled out of the gate and was eventually replaced by Hayden Birdsong. Not long after that, Hicks was packaged in the deal that brought Devers to San Francisco.
Now, just one year later, Hicks is out of Boston, and the Red Sox are left with only two of the four players they received in the Devers trade: Kyle Harrison and Jose Bello.
James Tibbs III, another piece of the deal, was flipped to the Dodgers at last season’s trade deadline in exchange for Dustin May, who’s now with the Cardinals. So, in essence, the trade has distilled down to Harrison for Devers – and that’s a swap the Giants will happily live with.
Sure, Harrison has the tools to develop into a quality big league starter. Maybe even a front-line guy down the road.
But Devers is already that guy. He brings the kind of left-handed power and presence in the middle of the lineup that the Giants have been missing for years.
He’s not just a bat – he’s the bat. And when he gets going, he can change the tone of a game with one swing.
Adding to Boston’s woes, Alex Bregman’s departure in free agency only made things worse. It was the Red Sox’s decision to sign Bregman and shift Devers into a designated hitter role that helped spark the tension leading to his exit. Now, Bregman’s gone, Devers is thriving in San Francisco, and Boston’s left trying to pick up the pieces.
Time will tell how this trade looks in the long run, especially if Harrison blossoms into a star. But as things stand today, the Giants are looking like clear winners.
They got the impact bat they needed, and Boston’s return is already thinning out. That’s the kind of deal that can reshape a team’s trajectory – and right now, San Francisco is walking tall.
