Welcome to Fenway Used Vehicles! I see you’re eyeing that 2025 Devers. Yeah, that’s a beauty. Started slow in the cold and sometimes makes some noise, but after some minor repairs last year it’s as reliable and efficient as ever. Ran dependably for around eight years and has plenty left to give. I see you don’t have much in the way of trade value, but that’s OK. We just want to get it off the lot. We’ll take whatever you’ve got. You’re doing us a favor!

Go ahead and tell yourself that Rafael Devers had to go. That he wasn’t a team player. That he wasn’t worth the 10-year, $313.5 million contract the Boston Red Sox gave him prior to the 2023 season. That he was going to rub off on the team’s collection of young potential superstars like poison ivy.

Go ahead and twist yourself in knots convincing yourself and anyone within earshot that the trade sending Devers to the San Francisco Giants Sunday afternoon is a good thing.

It’s not. It’s Craig Breslow and the rest of the Red Sox management team taking the easiest way out of a problem they created.

Remember, this is the group that after the signing of Alex Bregman told Devers to put away his glove and focus strictly on hitting. This is the group that seemed shocked that after having his defensive abilities summarily discounted, Devers balked at learning a new position and playing some first base when Triston Casas was lost for the season with a knee injury. Red Sox management would rather trade Devers than admit they screwed the whole thing up. It’s easier than honesty.

And they want you to go along with it, with buzzwords like “team player” and “not a leader.”

With a large portion of the fan base, that stuff works, because fans look at the situation with fan’s eyes. They think any player who won’t switch positions on a moment’s notice is a selfish jerk, because for the chance to play baseball in the major leagues, they would play any position you’ve got. Fans see baseball as the dream job they’ve wanted since youth, not the actual hard work and grind it is to succeed at that level.

For his career, Devers’ 162-game averages are gaudy. Thirty-three home runs, 107 RBI, 102 runs, 42 doubles. Replacing that kind of production isn’t easy.

Devers is only 28 and won’t turn 29 until late October. He’s done more than succeed at that level. His sin? Letting the world know his employer jerked him around.

Here is what Boston got in exchange from the Giants, who must be chuckling at their good fortune when they realized no matter who is in charge of the Red Sox, they will accept the baseball equivalent of magic beans in almost every major deal: left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison, who currently has a mediocre 4.56 earned run average and is so vital to Boston’s pitching depth he was immediately sent to Triple-A Worcester; righty Jordan Hicks, who boasts an even worse 6.47 ERA and 1.541 WHIP; Jason Tibbs III, a minor league outfielder who was a first-round pick last year; and Jose Bello, a 20-year old pitcher who has looked good at the lowest level of minor league ball. We’ll check on him again in a couple seasons.

If the Giants could’ve included Jeter Downs, Alex Verdugo or Franchy Cordero in this deal, they would’ve.

OK, for the sake of playing along, let’s just say the Red Sox had to trade Devers. Let’s pretend his refusal to play first base was driving a wedge through the clubhouse and leading the team’s young players down the road to vice and ruin. Let’s go along with the whisper campaign that insists Devers himself thought the relationship was beyond salvage and requested a trade. Why make the deal now? Why not let the market play out and see what better offers come your way as the trade deadline approaches? If the only rush was a front office panic with Wilyer Abreau coming off the injured list later this week, that’s foolishness of the highest level.

It’s not a baseball trade, not in the slightest. It’s a chance to unload money and hope every prospect pans out. That’s all.

Tibbs could end up in Portland with the Sea Dogs by the end of the season. If there’s a jewel coming back to Boston in this deal, it’s him or Bello. The Giants selected Tibbs with the 13th pick of last summer’s draft, one spot behind where the Red Sox selected Braden Montgomery, the outfielder who was traded to the White Sox as part of the deal that netted Boston ace pitcher Garrett Crochet last winter.

That said, we already know outfield is a position of depth in Boston’s system. Along with the talented players on the big league roster, there’s Jhostynxon Garcia playing in Triple-A Worcester. It’s hard to see Tripp as anything more than a depth piece. Unless Breslow is eyeballing Jarren Duran and thinking, “you know, I bet we could get a mediocre middle reliever and a light-hitting middle infielder for him.”

Just make an offer.