The Boston Red Sox made a big splash this offseason when they landed Ace left-hander Chris Sale. As Boston reports for Spring Training we learned that the Red Sox refused to include Andrew Benintendi in any Chris Sale trade talks. It appears there was another name that Boston was unwilling to deal, Rafael Devers. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe has reported that G.M. Dave Dombrowski was unwilling to deal Devers.
“Andrew Benintendi isn’t the only player who represented a deal-breaker in the Red Sox’ trade discussions about lefthander Chris Sale. While the Red Sox wanted to preserve their young big league positional core, they also slammed on the brakes when the White Sox sought minor league third baseman Rafael Devers.
The deal came to fruition only when the White Sox stopped asking for Devers and instead rounded out their four-player prospect package that already featured Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech with outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe and righthander Luis Diaz”.
Check out Devers take some swings during Spring Training:
A couple of swings from Rafael Devers. pic.twitter.com/4EGTh5uuVA
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) February 15, 2017
It’s probably likely that the Red Sox view Devers as a better prospect than Yoan Moncada considering they were willing to deal Moncada instead of Devers. Boston signed Devers as a 16-year-old international free agent in 2013 and currently ranks as the 17th best prospect in baseball according to MLB.com. Devers is 1.5 years younger than Moncada and will start the season in AA. After batting .328 in the 2nd half of the season the hope is that he can round out the infield next season next to superstar shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
