Kurtenbach: Buster Posey’s big Rafael Devers trade is a statement — the SF Giants are done playing second fiddle

Last week I questioned a simple question What makes the Giants Buster Posey s organization Well a limited days later we have the answer Posey s bold brash and perhaps even reckless arrangement for three-time All-Star slugger Rafael Devers on Sunday is a big black-and-orange stamp from the new director of baseball operations on the Giants organization Here s what I m about The arrangement also made a message to the fanbase and the rest of baseball The Giants are done acting like anything less than the single big-league band in the richest metro area in America They re done trying to beat the Dodgers in the margins they have the muscle and they re going to flex it After years of pushing fiscal prudence and not earnestly trying to keep up with the Joneses Posey is done pretending anything else but the unit in blue matters Related Articles Kurtenbach The SF Giants and Dodgers fighting for the NL West lead That s next-level Buster Magic SF Giants win fifth consecutive one-run encounter sweep flailing Braves We re battle tested Hello Kitty brings massive crowds to Oracle Park for SF Giants vs Braves encounter Kurtenbach Buster Posey successfully navigated SF Giants through his first real predicament in the majority ironic way Kurtenbach The SF Giants next two weeks will tell us where they stand in the NL Devers who has a cool quarter of a billion million remaining on a deal that runs through for the sportsman and until with deferred payments for the unit is coming to San Francisco for Jordan Hicks Kyle Harrison and two minor leaguers The Giants will take on every penny of what remains on Devers contract Is it a bit of conspicuous consumption You bet Might the Giants want this move back in a limited years Perhaps But Posey is right nothing matters but beating the Dodgers And the Dodgers don t worry about a contract like Devers So the Giants shouldn t either The former catcher s competitiveness is legendary It was the driving force behind titles And we now have clear evidence of it manifesting in his new gig The goal is to close the gap and the gap was huge You can t look at the Dodgers lineup and then the Giants this past weekend and think anything different But while Matt Chapman Willy Adames and Rafael Devers aren t on the level of Shohei Ohtani Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman at least they can share a National League All-Star club locker room and perhaps tips for how to invest their insane amounts of money This is the kind of deal that the Giants had to make just like Posey had to roll a head a sparse weeks back The post-shake-up boost was waning And while that s not a valid reason to take on a quarter of a billion dollars the questions of what next that stemmed from that shakeup required more than just another Farhan Zaidi-like move Dom Smith as good a guy and as decent a contestant as he might be isn t going to lift the Giants over the Dodgers in the standings Another report I made last week before Championship of the Dodgers series which the Giants lost - to fall two games back in the National League West Just just because the Giants are doing better than anyone should have reasonably expected doesn t mean that this is the time to rest on the squad s laurels Posey certainly did not do that Related Articles Following shocking Rafael Devers pact SF Giants drop finale to Dodgers SF Giants acquire star third baseman Devers for pitchers Hicks Harrison and prospects Schmitt makes history but SF Giants embarrassed by Dodgers in worst loss of year SF Giants Verlander throws latest bullpen could return during homestand Schmitt powers SF Giants to win over Dodgers with first career grand slam This deal has surely been brewing for a little bit Giants television analyst Mike Krukow disclosed on KNBR that Posey in the past few days questioned him which of the organization s three young pitchers Landon Roupp Hayden Birdsong or Kyle Harrison was going to be the best Might he have been gauging business value The opportunity to move Harrison Krukow s pick for what it s worth as the centerpiece of a deal for a participant like Devers doesn t come around often And let s be abundantly clear here the arrangement package sent to Boston for Devers is embarrassingly light In Harrison and Jordan Kicks the Giants jettisoned two pitchers who are apparently relievers at best Hicks was already moved to the bullpen this season The Giants have only one untouchable minor-league prospect and Bryce Eldridge is still safely stashed in Sacramento Finances aside this was a coup of a commerce Boston just wished to unload Devers contract The Giants are willing buyers If Devers were a free agent last year he would have landed a similar deal I m sure the Giants would have extended an offer I m not so sure Devers would have accepted it Which is why Posey s commerce deserves accolades not hand-wringing If the Giants can t buy players like Devers in free agency and they can t create them in their farm system at least at the current moment then they ll have to add them via exchange It s that or completely not having elite-level players Unfortunately situations like the Devers deal a organization looking to jettison a fair-market contract for an elite bat but not expecting a high-level return come up rarely If Posey didn t pounce on this deal how would the Giants with their bottom-of-the-barrel farm system have added a athlete like Devers in the coming weeks or even the coming years There s a similarity to the Warriors Jimmy Butler deal here A weird situation with the Bay Area crew being the right association in the right place at the right time Like with Butler it s not as if the Giants are acquiring a truly distressed asset The problems that made Butler expendable in Miami ceased to exist the second the Warriors acquired him and signed him to the extension he yearned from the Heat Devers issues that led to his pact should be left in Boston the Giants aren t signing a third baseman to take his job without consulting him they already have a third baseman on a long-term deal in Matt Chapman whose injury might have expedited things a bit here We can all agree can all agree this will ostensibly not be a good deal in the not-too-distant future Devers isn t much of a fielder his preferred to the point he was traded position of third base is blocked and if his bat slows down even a bit he swings as fast as Adames a cautionary tale his value tanks But I have a two-word retort for such thinking Who cares What did the Giants lose in this arrangement The biggest loss is money on which the Giants should be plenty set And what did they gain Only the left-handed middle-of-the-order bat this gang which again is competing not just for a playoff spot but the National League West desperately needed If ownership and don t forget that Posey is a part-owner of the band isn t worried enough about the financial aspects of Devers contract to prevent this arrangement then no fan should be worried for them What did all the fiscal prudence over the last limited years earn the fans Tickets concessions hats and parking didn t go down in price because the Giants weren t spending as much as they could If Posey didn t take advantage of this situation and the arrangement package says nothing if not I m taking advantage of you one would have to question his competitiveness Luckily that s something that we ll never have to do After years of lowering standards the man in charge wants it as bad as the fans in the stands and he s acting on those urges What more could you possibly want