Red Sox-Dodgers Disaster Trade Looks Even Worse After Latest Report

It's the worst PR period in Boston history...

Feb 22, 2026; Peoria, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers base runner James Tibbs III dives back to first base on a pickoff attempt against the San Diego Padres during a spring training game at Peoria Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox have been getting dragged through the mud this week, and it's fairly easy to see why.

As the Red Sox have dropped to 12 games below .500 with an active four-game losing streak entering Thursday, knives have come out across the industry about how poorly everyone supposedly believed this team was constructed all along. Whether we should have seen it coming or not, the fact is that the Red Sox... flat-out stink.

A number of moves made by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the Boston front office within the last year have been dissected and relitigated over the last few weeks. And the Rafael Devers trade tree is worth examining closely, because a couple of the subsequent moves are being painted in a worse light than ever before.

What they're saying about Dodgers deal

Feb 23, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman James Tibbs III against the Seattle Mariners during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

On Thursday, Tim Healey added to the deluge of bad reports coming out about the Red Sox's past by asserting that every team involved with the deal that sent James Tibbs III to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dustin May was stunned -- even the San Francisco Giants, who had shipped Tibbs to Boston for Devers.

"Breslow’s willingness to include Tibbs to acquire a fringe rental starter surprised members of the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Giants front offices, sources with those teams said. The Dodgers 'couldn’t agree to that fast enough,' a source said, when the Sox proposed giving up Tibbs and Ehrhard," Healey wrote.

Tibbs, the Giants' 2024 first-round pick, is going gangbusters for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers this season, with a 1.044 OPS and 18 home runs in 62 games. He's become a surefire Top 100 prospect in the sport, and the Red Sox gave him up -- plus another solid outfield prospect in Zach Ehrhard -- for a guy who had a 4.85 ERA with the Dodgers last year and was in danger of being cut.

Just to rub salt in the wound, May is somehow pitching like a capable major league starter for the St. Louis Cardinals this season. His 4.21 ERA is nothing to write home about, but it's a lot better than the production Boston has gotten from the No. 5 spot in the rotation.

It's hardly a surprise that people were floored by the deal at the time. But what really matters is that the Red Sox, who could sorely use a bat like Tibbs' moving forward, are in a very poor spot as an organization.