“I’m not certain what (issue) he has with me,” Devers said through an interpreter as teammates paused around the clubhouse to listen and grew visibly frustrated and shocked. “He played ball, and I would like to think that he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy… In (spring) training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH. Right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”

Devers’ censure led to Breslow, CEO Sam Kennedy, and principal owner John Henry making an unscheduled trip to Kansas City for a sitdown with the slugger. There, they chided Devers and discussed what it means to be a good teammate.

Barely a month later, Devers has new teammates.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have put a new spin on one of their worst habits.

To truly understand Sunday’s trade, one must revisit Jon Lester, Betts, and Bogaerts.

Lester is one of the only great homegrown pitchers this franchise ever developed and a two-time World Series champion.

He declined a lowball extension offer, so the Red Sox traded him to the Oakland A’s at the ‘14 deadline.

Betts is one of the most talented allaround players the Red Sox have ever had, and when he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame one day, there will be a Dodgers logo on his bronze plaque.

The Red Sox didn’t trade Bogaerts, but they shoved the two-time World Series champ and unofficial captain out the door all the same. The beloved shortstop wanted to be in Boston for his entire career, and even initiated a team-friendly extension to further that dream. The winter before his first opt-out, the Red Sox asked Bogaerts to help them land Trevor Story, a fellow shortstop. It was a slap in the face, but ever the team player, Bogaerts complied and helped the Red Sox sign his own replacement.

None of these moves made the Red Sox better. All of them made the Red Sox considerably worse and further fractured their relationship with their fans.

Devers was the one who broke the chain, the homegrown star they finally valued enough to keep. He was ownership’s penance for Betts (and Bogaerts). Until Sunday.

Even without the benefit of hindsight, this immediately vaults into the top-five most stunning, franchise-altering trades in Red Sox history, if not higher.

When Boston sent Betts to the Dodgers, it was easy to make comparisons to the sale that launched 86 years of misery in Boston; the 1918 Red Sox won the World Series and announced the sale of Babe Ruth on Jan. 5, 1920, and the 2018 Red Sox won the World Series and agreed to the Betts trade on Feb. 10, 2020. Both players went on to enormous success with their new teams.

But there are several parallels here, too.

Chiefly among them that unlike Lester, Betts, and Bogaerts, Ruth and Devers were under team control for the long haul; Ruth, because he played in the pre-free agency era when the Reserve Clause essentially meant teams owned their players, and Devers, because he agreed to a contract that would cover most, if not all of the rest of his career.

Ruth also clashed with Red Sox ownership over his position — he wanted to play left field and hit every day, rather than pitch — and owner Harry Frazee was cash-strapped and sick of his superstar’s antics. The present-day Red Sox often act as though they’re cash-strapped, and they were sick of Devers.

“I should have preferred to have taken players in exchange for Ruth, but no club could have given me the equivalent in men without wrecking itself, and so the deal had to be made on a cash basis,” Frazee said when he announced the Ruth sale.

While the Red Sox are receiving players and prospects this time around, the ‘cash basis’ is key again: the Giants are taking on the entire remainder of Devers’ contract, over $230 million.

This is how the Red Sox clean up the mess they made with Betts, and the mess they made with Devers.

What the Red Sox either fail to realize, or are unbothered by, however, is that the aftermath of this decision will be messier still.

First, because this isn’t Nomar Garciaparra at the 2004 deadline, getting you a few pieces to complete a team. The Red Sox may have flexibility in the designated hitter spot now, but overall they are even less complete. It is very difficult to see this team making the playoffs, let alone winning it all.

Second, when a team trades a player like Devers this early in the season — has something like this even happened before? — it’s almost certainly not a one-and-done situation. Boston still has too many outfielders, among other pressing roster matters.

So, where do the Red Sox go from here? In an ideal world, this wouldn’t destroy all the momentum of the last week, but I’m not optimistic. Trading your best hitter and the only player remaining from your last championship team doesn’t exactly scream ‘Playoff push!”

The Yankees, however, must be over the moon.

Nor do I think the trade improves the club’s reputation. Executives around the league were shocked by the move. Free agents were finally starting to choose Boston again. Now, they’re all going to want no-trade clauses.

But above all, how will the Red Sox survive their latest round of ‘Torment Our Fans?’ The front office begged for patience as they rebuilt the farm system. They promised this year would be different, with Devers surrounded by legitimate talent courtesy of a front office that finally put their money where their mouths are.

Instead, it is both the same and somehow possibly worse than so many other years. Fans are rightfully appalled and will make themselves heard; unlike 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic kept fans at home that first season without Betts, the Red Sox won’t be able to escape fans’ ire this time around.

Devers was the last remaining member of Boston’s most recent championship team; he was the only person on the roster who knew what it takes to win in one of the most intense sports towns in the world. That wonderful, thrilling, dominant 2018 squad turned a hubristic soundbite from Yankees GM Brian Cashman into the slogan of their playoff run: they “did damage.”

But as of Sunday, they’re all gone.

And the damage really is done.