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.

The Red Sox had just pulled off a three-game sweep of the rival Yankees for their seventh win in the last eight games and were getting ready for a Sunday night West Coast trip to Seattle when one of t