Red Sox: Rafael Devers is making a serious case for a contract extension

Red Sox need to use their new money to sign Rafael Devers long-term

I won’t even try to beat around the bush here, friends, this is going to be a Rafael Devers lovefest. The Red Sox third baseman has been a fixture in the lineup since his promotion to the main club in 2017. Not only has he become a key fixture in Boston, but his partnership with Xander Bogaerts is easily one of the best one-two punches in the league. For 2020, he started off ice cold after arriving at camp a bit late and out of shape, but now he’s back into the swing of things.

So why are we chatting about the southpaw powerhouse today? Well, for starters he’s hotter than anyone on the Red Sox roster not named Bobby Dalbec. Secondly, he’s set to enter arbitration ahead of the 2021 season and his club-friendly salary could skyrocket. So for me, it’s time to just avoid that whole headache and get a new deal done before Boston can no-longer afford him.

I know that may sound weird that the team can’t afford a player, but there’s a reason why Mookie Betts is playing in Los Angeles now. Could the team have paid him? Absolutely! But with the CBT rules, it would’ve been financially crippling and would’ve handcuffed them on making other deals in the future. In Devers’ case, he won’t be commanding anywhere near the amount that Mookie was so it’s a deal that won’t hurt Boston in the long run.

With Chaim Bloom in the front office, there won’t be any foolish contracts being doled out as we saw under GM’s of the past. However, I truly feel that Raffy’s age and talent will more than garner the favor of Bloom and FSG’s checkbook. Ahead of last year, we saw Bogey get his contract extension and it makes plenty of sense for Boston to do the same with Devers now that the penalties are reset and there’s money to play with.

So you may be asking why exactly I think that Raffy should be given an extension, well let’s get into it! I spoke about some things above but I think it’s time we get into some of the nitty-gritty about his tenure with the Red Sox. Again, he made his debut back in 2017 and was quick to show some flashes of his brilliance. It was in 2018 that I think we all got a good look at what he may be able to do with a full season. It’s hard to deny the confidence that she showed during the postseason on the run to the World Series.

I think we all know that season that needs to be highlighted here and it was his breakout effort in 2019. It didn’t matter who was on the mound, where the game was being played, or what the circumstances were, Raffy did the damn thing. What he and Bogaerts did in 2019 gave me flashbacks to Manny and Ortiz, but like, smaller. They just hit the cover off of the ball from April until their season ended in September.

To put his 2019 campaign into perspective, Devers finished third in the American League for third baseman offensively behind Alex Bregman and Matt Chapman. That’s pretty damn good company to be in for a kid that was just 22-years-old and thrust into a star position with the Red Sox. With this year being about as weird as you can possibly be thanks to COVID shutting the world down, I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d be able to do.

Starting off the year it seemed like we were seeing more of the 2017/18 Devers and none of 2019. He was swinging at pitches that he would never have a prayer of coming close to hitting but then something clicked. Right in front of our eyes, it was like he woke up from a haze and remembered that he was really good at baseball. BSI’s Hunter Knoll broke it down and Devers has gone from a sub .200 AVG to nearly .300 in the span of a month.