Red Sox Rumors: Could Rafael Devers be traded for Manny Machado?

Could the free agent market bail them out?

The free agent market for third baseman is actually pretty interesting next winter. Let’s look at it with the assumption that Machado doesn’t want to return to Boston after finishing the season there. What’s left is a mix of veterans that could all provide solid production. They are all also old enough that any deal signed is likely to end poorly. Adrian Beltre will be 40, and might be the most interesting option. He’s still very good when healthy, but can he stay on the field? If they can get one mostly healthy season out of him on a one year deal, that might be the best way to try and get to Dalbec.

Beyond him there is Mike Moustakas who is basically repeating a 2017 season that landed him one year at $6.5M guaranteed. Josh Donaldson will be 33 and is in the midst of a league average season at the plate and has struggled to remain healthy. He was one of the top third basemen in baseball until this season, though. And that means he won’t be likely to sign for short years or money. Does the team really want to sign another veteran third baseman to a big contract with the last year of Pablo Sandoval still on the books? Speaking of, Panda will be available too. More seriously, so will Jed Lowrie. He’s another veteran who has had trouble staying on the field throughout his career. The free agent market could offer an answer, but not without significant risk.

And then there is Devers’ upside.

Besides, Devers is likely to improve as the season goes on and may be better than any of those free agents in the next five years. He’s just 21 years old and is holding down a starting gig at the major league level. That’s remarkable all on its own. Chris Hatfield of soxprospects.com had a nice reminder on that front recently:

So, sure, the 79 wRC+ is discouraging to see, as are the 13 errors. Of course, 10 of those errors were from before May 25th. Only three have happened since. His rate has dropped from one every 4.9 games to one every 5.3. He’s still not where we want to see him, but he is improving. At the plate, Devers is showing signs of turning it around. And he’s hit 10 HR in 66 games. That’s not far off his 10 hit in 58 games in 2017. In fact, his total rate of HR in the majors is one for every 6.2 games he plays. That a 26 HR pace over 162 games.

Not bad for a kid barely old enough to drink. He has work to do, but that’s true of virtually every 21 year old ever to play in the majors.