TAMPA, Fla. — You would think, by now, they would know better. After years and years of watching the Rays off-load contracts, stars and malcontents, you would hope the Red Sox would have handled the Rafael Devers situation with a little more grace.

Instead, New England is in an uproar and BoSox officials are sounding defensive. The team managed to look cheap, vindictive and clueless while making a trade that, in reality, could turn out to be a positive for the Red Sox.

Why?

Communication seems to be one issue. Honesty might be another. While we’re at it, we could probably throw arrogance into the equation.

Here’s another way of looking at it:

In the last 20 years, the Rays have had 31 different players named to the American League All-Star team. Of those, 20 were traded away relatively quickly, another seven left via free agency and four are still with the organization (although Wander Franco is on the restricted list).

And while there has been grumbling and criticism along the way, the Rays have never stepped into a mess as unseemly as the Devers situation. They’ve traded Cy Young Award winners, postseason heroes and a franchise icon and still have gotten the benefit of the doubt in most trade scenarios.

It helps that Tampa Bay’s revenue situation is acknowledged and accepted by most observers, which gives the Rays a built-in explanation for most trades. It also helps that their front office has an uncanny knack for coming out on top in a lot of these swaps.

But do not dismiss how the Rays go about their business when it comes to dealing with players and trades.

Here, then, are some of the lessons that should have been learned ahead of the Devers deal.

Communication

Rarely does a Rays player seem to be caught by surprise when leaving Tampa Bay via a trade. If you’re looking for a comp to the Devers situation, Evan Longoria was the face of the Tampa Bay franchise, the team’s all-time leader in home runs, WAR, doubles, at-bats, extra-base hits and RBIs. Like Devers, he was signed to a long-term deal with tens of millions still to be paid.

And, like Devers, he was traded to the Giants for a package of players that seemed less than market value. Here’s what Longoria said on the day of the trade:

“(Then-general manager Erik Neander) and (team president Matt Silverman) and the front office have been very open and communicated from Day 1. (They) were very open to letting me go somewhere where they felt like I had the best opportunity as a player to win and also for them to be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish in trying to rebuild the franchise.

“I don’t know that they could have done it any better in terms of what they did for me, so I’m very appreciative of them for that.”

Honesty

In a news conference Monday, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow suggested the team would win more games the rest of 2025 without Devers’ bat. This, my friends, is known as blowing smoke.

Maybe the Red Sox, who are on a bit of an upswing, will win 90 games and make the playoffs. There’s still a good deal of talent in the dugout, including a lot of top prospects with room to grow, so it’s not out of the question. But there is a certain hubris to claiming you’re a better team after removing the best hitter from your lineup.

In the winter of 2020, the Rays were two months removed from losing to the Dodgers in the World Series when they traded Blake Snell to the Padres for four prospects. He still had three years remaining on his contract and, like Devers, was only 28. The thought was to maximize the return for Snell while he was still a valuable commodity to make sure the Rays could remain successful in future seasons.

As it turns out, it didn’t work. Most of the prospects flamed out and Snell, while being mercurial as ever, did win another Cy Young in San Diego.

But the Rays never tried to hide from what the trade meant for the 2021 team.

On the day of the trade, Neander called the move “a step back” for the Rays and acknowledged they were “not as good a team without him.”

That’s how it’s done.

Accountability

While the outside world marvels at how the Rays have flipped high-priced players for up-and-coming stars, the team has also made its share of mistakes. Some small, some major. The Snell trade, as mentioned, was a bust. The Isaac Paredes trade to Chicago is not looking too good today. The Rays have also signed some players to deals that they quickly regretted as the Sox appeared to do with Devers.

The difference is the Rays acknowledge it and rarely let it become a distraction. Also, they never trash players on the way out the door, as the Red Sox seemingly did with off-the-record comments about Devers’ attitude.

There have been a handful of players the Rays considered to be addition-by-subtraction, but they didn’t whisper about it to provide themselves with cover. The results, they always figure, will be the ultimate barometer as opposed to today’s sound bites.

The Red Sox have an enviable track record in the last 25 years. They’re the only franchise with four World Series titles in the 21st century.

They have no reason to be defensive with fans or churlish with players.

So why act that way?

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