The two Red Sox executives suggested Devers's refusal to consider playing play first base after a season-ending injury to Triston Casas in early May fractured his relationship with the organization.

The Boston Red Sox moved on from one of the faces of their franchise on Sunday, trading Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants in one of the more surprising moves in recent memory.

While the Red Sox front office kept reiterating that it was a pure baseball trade, the honest truth is that it was a culture trade. They didn’t believe they could win another championship with Devers. They believed he was the wrong guy to be the centerpiece of the franchise. They didn’t think he would become a leader. So, he is gone.