Between all of the Hunter Dobbins business, Roman Anthony’s debut and the shocking Rafael Devers trade, this has been one of the wildest months in recent memory for the Red Sox.

How are fans feeling about everything right now? We answer your questions in today’s Red Sox mailbag.

What are your thoughts on the Rafael Devers trade? — Marc L.

I was as shocked as anyone when the trade first took place, but given a couple of days to digest everything, I don’t think this trade is the disaster many have suggested.

It certainly doesn’t reflect well on the Red Sox though.

Essentially the Red Sox made the trade because they messed up at several points along the way and left themselves with no other option. Their first mistake was trading Mookie Betts, the current ownership group’s original sin, and after allowing Xander Bogaerts to walk in free agency they faced so much fan backlash that they couldn’t afford to lose Devers too. But the extension Devers signed was always destined to age poorly, especially once the slugger moved off third base. In trying to make up for one blunder, they committed a second.

The third mistake was not being upfront with Devers about a position change being on the table. The idea that Devers might eventually have to move to first base or designated hitter had been widely discussed in the media for years, but if the club’s message behind the scenes was essentially “don’t worry, it’s all just noise” right up until the moment they said “actually, we are going to make a change,” that’s crazy. Devers handled things exceptionally poorly, but the Red Sox still did a terrible job communicating their intentions. In doing so they created a rift between themselves and their highest-paid and longest-tenured player, resulting in an untenable situation where a trade was the only option.

The Red Sox need to take a long look in the mirror at the way they’ve conducted business, but at the end of the day this trade could still wind up being a good thing.

If the front office determined that investing in Devers was a mistake, then they deserve credit for unloading the entire contract and giving themselves a clean break. In many respects this deal is a lot like the 2012 Carl Crawford trade, where the players the Red Sox got back was secondary to the club ridding itself of a negative asset and allowing itself a chance to reallocate the money more effectively.

Devers is a far superior player to what Crawford and Josh Beckett were at that stage of their careers, and the Red Sox are certainly not a better team now than they were this time last week. But if the Red Sox take the money they would have paid Devers and instead use it to sign some combination of Alex Bregman, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer or a future free agent to long-term deals, would that be a bad outcome?

Obviously the Red Sox haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt given everything that’s happened over the past five years, but this deal’s legacy will ultimately be determined by what comes next.

Is the plan currently to see how things go and then add at the deadline if the Sox are competing? Or is this now just a season of development? — Jake F.

The short answer is it depends on how the Red Sox play over the next five weeks, but

Craig Breslow did make a point to say that the Devers trade shouldn’t be interpreted as the club waving the white flag on the 2025 season. My guess is the Red Sox fully expect to buy if they’re in a position where doing so makes sense.

That being said, it’s clear that whether the Red Sox are buyers or sellers at the trade deadline, this will be a season of development either way.

All of Boston’s “Big Three” prospects have reached the majors, and Breslow indicated that trading Devers was done at least partially in service of fostering the best environment possible for the club’s young players. Beyond removing a potentially unhealthy clubhouse dynamic from the equation, trading Devers also frees up the designated hitter spot, allowing the Red Sox to continue playing Anthony and Mayer even after the club is back to full health, and Campbell too once he’s figured things out in Triple-A.

Prior to the trade there was no way the Red Sox could play Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Anthony at the same time, unless they moved Rafaela to the infield, which would have bumped either Mayer or Campbell. Now Alex Cora will have the flexibility to give everyone regular playing time while mixing and matching defensively based on the needs of a given day.

Will that translate to better results than if Devers were still in the lineup? We’ll see, but if the goal is to help the young kids better acclimate to the majors, they’ll certainly get more opportunities now.

Who do we think is the next trade domino to fall? — @MinusTheKilo

The Devers trade was an extraordinary situation that was prompted by a myriad of unusual factors, but the deal did show the Red Sox are willing to make dramatic moves to shake up the roster if they feel change is needed.

There’s a good case to be made more moves are still necessary.

Right now the Red Sox have too many outfielders, and even if freeing up the DH spot will help facilitate things in the short term, the club has to make some sort of decision eventually. I’ve written previously that a move centered around either Duran or Abreu would make a lot of sense, and subsequent reporting from around the game has shown that Duran has drawn interest from other clubs.

If the Red Sox can get an appropriate return they could go forward with an alignment of Anthony, Rafaela and Abreu and be well-positioned heading into 2026 and beyond.

The team also still needs to figure out what they’re going to do with Masataka Yoshida too, but moving Devers at least opens up the possibility he could resume his DH duties upon his return from the injured list.

Were Yankees fools to trade Carlos Narvaez? Or is Austin Wells actually the better catcher?

So this wasn’t exactly a formal mailbag submission, but rather the subject of a big debate that recently went down in a group chat I’m in with a bunch of college friends. Essentially, the Red Sox fans were chirping the Yankees fans about giving Narvaez away, while the Yankees fans argued that Wells is actually better and that New York made the right choice.

Who’s right?

Narvaez has been the more productive of the two this season. Offensively, Narvaez came into the weekend with better rate stats (.277/.364/.450 vs. .217/.283/.448), while Wells had more homers (11 to 6) and RBI (43 vs. 23). The biggest plus in Narvaez’s favor is his OPS+ of 127 vs. Wells’ 103. For those unfamiliar, an OPS+ of 100 equates to league-average offensive production, which means Narvaez has been 27% better than average at the plate while Wells has only been 3% better.

Is Narvaez’s strong start sustainable? The Red Sox catcher has exceeded all expectations at the plate and his .353 batting average on balls in play suggests some regression is bound to happen. But at this point Narvaez’s production has come over a full third of a season’s worth of games, a respectable sample size, and Wells’ career .225 batting average and .725 OPS over 196 MLB games don’t suggest a terribly high bar for Narvaez to clear.

Defensively it’s not even close.

By just about any metric Narvaez is among the best defensive catchers in baseball. At the time of this writing Statcast has him at 97th percentile in Fielding Run Value while also grading him as among the cream of the crop in called strikes above average (98th percentile), blocks above average (97th percentile) and framing (96th percentile). He also stacks up well in pop time (79th percentile), and FanGraphs has him at plus-eight defensive runs saved, which is the second best mark among all MLB catchers behind only San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey (plus-nine).

Wells is good too, but not in that stratosphere. Statcast grades him as 88th percentile in Fielding Run Value this year and had him at 96th percentile last year, and he’s also among the best at framing (91st percentile in 2025, 96th in 2024). Everything else is below average, however. This year he’s listed as 42nd percentile in blocks above average, 34th in called strikes above average and only 15th in pop time, and last year wasn’t meaningfully different.

FanGraphs also only has Wells as an even zero defensive runs saved, a notable regression from his plus-11 last year.

So who would you rather have? Wells is a year younger and has about three times as many big league games under his belt, but Narvaez has already established himself as a potential All-Star. Maybe down the road the decision to choose Wells over Narvaez won’t seem so crazy, but right now the Red Sox have to be delighted the Yankees were willing to give him up.