Sox scored 6 runs in three games. It would have been nice to have Devers, who has great postseason numbers, in the lineup.
On the other hand the Red Sox can raise a "we saved some money" banner.
The Yankees lineup of hitters with four former MVP?s and their top four, scored eight? no doubt more production would?ve been good but it would?ve been really nice to have decent, injury, free pitching outside Crochet. Some decent defense wouldn?t have hurt either. 
A little more production game 2 and the Sox advance.
We can play this game of IF all day though...a little better pitching, they advance too. There's no one reason, except the one we all decide is
the reason
The Devers issue is ultimately less about Devers as an individual talent and more about the faith people have in the front office and whether you believe them when tbey say that the incremental value Devers added to the team had diminished because of fit, dissatisfaction, culture, whatever. If the team total value is 100 and Devers is 15, then you feel the team is only worth 85 after Devers got shipped out. If you think that Devers is individually worth 15 but his incremental value to the Sox was negative, like a -5 (i.e. his dissatisfaction and attitude was making the team worse), then you shipped out a guy that might be worth 15 elsewhere but your team is now 105. Those are really the 2 camps. If you think the front office suck then the Devers decision is a terrible one.
To me the following things can all be true:
- Devers was unhappy with the Bregman signing and being made to move positions, then being made to move again
- Switching positions from DH to 1B is hard for some players
- Refusing to switch can be viewed as not putting the team first
- the front office did a terrible job of planning to cover for injuries
- the front office got a bag of peanuts for Devers when they should have got more
- the front office suck in general
- the Red Sox made the wild card game for the first time since 2021 in the same season they traded Devers for a bag of peanuts. Everything else is hypothetical
Personally the Devers hill isn't worth dying on for me, if people think he would have been the team's savior then there's an argument for that. I kind of regret bringing it up but I saw an article that shows the before-and-after for both Boston and the Giants and thought it was worth posting. Now that they're out its going to be talk show fodder all winter probably.
But to me ultimately the fact is they were in a position to win all 3 games with the team they had, they just weren't able to put the performance together. The errors in Game 3 hurt, the lack of production in Game 2 hurt, having to rely on multiple relievers in Game 2 hurt in both that game and the next one, loss of Roman Anthony hurt, maybe Devers would have saved them, there's a number of factors. But ultimately you have to hold the team on the field accountable, they had opportunities to get it done and didn't.
