Red Sox vs. Mariners series showcases right and wrong ways to build around superstars

For a hot minute on Sunday, this week's series between the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners had all the makings of a prime-time showdown. Both would come into Monday's action fresh off sweeps, with a returning Logan Gilbert set to take on a powerful offense headlined by Rafael Devers.

Well, now Devers is gone. Haven't you heard?

If not, let's be clear that he's not gone from this earth. He's a San Francisco Giant now, having been sent to the Bay Area in a shocking, out-of-nowhere blockbuster trade on Sunday evening. He will not be in Seattle for the start of Boston's three-game visit on Monday, or at all for the rest of 2025.

Frankly, it's a welcome break for the Mariners. The Red Sox's offense is not to be taken lightly given that it ranks second in the American League in scoring, but it can be taken more lightly sans Devers. He had been the primary driver of that scoring effort, with his bat producing a .905 OPS, 56 walks, and 58 runs batted in.

The Mariners treat their stars better than the Red Sox treat theirs

What makes this situation that much more baffling from the perspective of the Mariners is just how unavoidable it looks in retrospect.

Even from the get-go, the decision to sign Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension was suspect. It seemed at the time like an overreaction to the justifiable outrage over the club's trade of Mookie Betts in 2020, and the price seemed on the high side to boot. Over $30 million per year for a bat-first third baseman with a single 5-WAR season on his record? If you say so, boss...

Plus, if you're going to make a guy the face of your franchise, maybe make sure he actually wants that kind of heat? It never seemed as if Devers did, and a Sunday report from Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic basically confirms as much, with one notable part reading that it "seemed that Devers never truly embraced being the face of the franchise he’d grown to become."

Instead, Devers clearly preferred to be heard and not seen. That started out in an admirable way, with him calling out the front office for not aggressively adding players during the 2023-24 offseason. It was therefore ironic that he bristled at the addition of Alex Bregman a year later, but what did the Red Sox expect when they brought in somebody else to play his position?

That was a self-own, alright, and from there it was pretty much self-owns all the way down. Blaming Devers' third base fixation on Chaim Bloom? Yeah, don't do that. Insisting he play first base after he had been told to retire his glove for the year? Don't do that either. Telling him to his face that he's "hard-headed?" Bold strategy, Cotton.

In any case, it all led to a relationship that was broken beyond repair, as Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reported on Sunday:

Lest anyone hurl accusations of the pot calling the kettle black, the Mariners indeed have their own troubled history with cornerstone superstars. Randy Johnson is still miffed about the trade that sent him out of town in 1998. The franchise was also famously unable to continue relationships with Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, and is guilty of largely wasting the prime years of Ichiro Suzuki and Félix Hernández.

More recently, though, one thing you have to give Jerry Dipoto and the current brass is that they know a franchise face when they see one.

Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh are not just locked up for the long-term, but at rates that look like impossible bargains. The former is a 6-WAR center fielder who's earning an average of $17.4 million through at least 2029. The latter is getting paid $17.5 million per year, which seemed like a steal even when the ink was still wet. Now he's threatening a 60-homer season.

True, there is some weird discourse around how good Rodríguez is supposed to be, but both he and Raleigh can safely be called fan favorites. It helps that both give every indication that they actually like Seattle and playing for the Mariners, which honestly requires a hefty amount of good sportsmanship on Raleigh's part.

Where there is room for criticism concerns the brass' infamously modest ambitions for what they want to get out of their Rodríguez- and Raleigh-led rosters year in and year out. But at least winning is a priority, and there's an argument that the Mariners use their resources better than the Red Sox use theirs.

Money is Boston's primary strength, but the franchise is relatively cheap and the front office hasn't felt truly innovative since Theo Epstein left town what feels like a lifetime ago. Money is not Seattle's primary strength, so innovation is paramount. To this end, well, just look at that pitching pipeline and that farm system.

Boston fans can point to a scoreboard that shows nine World Series championships for the Red Sox and none for the Mariners. Seattle fans, however, can point to a scoreboard that shows a 0.5-game lead in the AL wild card race and another that shows two happy superstars for the Mariners and zero for the Red Sox.

Right now, those are the ones that matter.

Game Times and Probable Pitchers for Mariners vs. Red Sox, June 16-18

• Monday, June 16 at 6:40 p.m. PT: Lucas Giolito vs. Logan Gilbert
• Tuesday, June 17 at 6:40 p.m. PT: Walker Buehler vs. Bryan Woo
• Wednesday, June 18 at 1:10 p.m. PT: Garrett Crochet vs. Luis Castillo