Red Sox made three brutal mistakes with James Tibbs after Giants and Dodgers trades

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Red Sox made three brutal mistakes with James Tibbs after Giants and Dodgers trades originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Boston Red Sox have made a few controversial decisions in recent history, with their trade of Rafael Devers being one of the stranger and more polarizing trades recently.

But what makes that deal, and the loss of Alex Bregman in free agency, so much worse was what the Red Sox messed up with regarding James Tibbs III, the top prospect Boston got from the San Francisco Giants in the Devers trade.

Boston's decision to trade Tibbs to the Los Angeles Dodgers is an obvious mistake, but as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic highlighted, there are a few other reasons why this move was such a disaster for the Red Sox.

Red Sox made 3 crucial errors with James Tibbs​

"Executives generally hate acting as buyers at the deadline, knowing they often will overpay," Rosenthal writes. "The Red Sox might have fallen into that trap."

The move Rosenthal is referring to was Boston's decision to trade Tibbs and Zach Arhard for Dustin May from the Dodgers. May pitched just 28.1 innings in Boston, recording a 5.40 ERA. Not even close to being worth Tibbs or Erhard, let alone both.

The trade itself was a mistake, but Boston didn't simply overestimate how good May was; they weren't valuing Tibbs nearly as much as they should've been.

"They also might've moved too quickly on Tibbs," Rosenthal writes, "whom they also dangled to teams before the draft for a competitive-balance pick, according to a person briefed on their maneuverings."

Craig Breslow and company weren't simply trying to get better in the short term; they were trying to use Tibbs as a trade piece instead of holding onto him as a valuable prospect. But that might not be the worst part of the trio of Red Sox mistakes with Tibbs.

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"The Athletic's Kieth Law wrote that the Sox tweaked Tibbs' swing, leading to a .207/.319/.267 line in 30 games at Double A," Rosenthal writes.

Boston changed Tibbs' swing in the minor leagues, saw him struggle, and sent him to the Dodgers, who promptly had Tibbs change his swing back, where his results almost immediately improved.

So, not only did the Red Sox swing an over-aggressive trade, but they were trying to part ways with Tibbs anyway, and even tried forcing a change that wasn't working at all for the now Dodgers top prospect.

The Tibbs debacle, if he goes on to be a quality Major League player, will live in Red Sox infamy. It was a baffling decision at the time, and this added context makes things look a whole lot worse for the Red Sox.

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