Jan. 11: The Red Sox have formally announced the contract as a 10-year extension with Devers, spanning the 2024-33 seasons. As reported last night, that keeps his 2023 luxury tax hit at $17.5MM (the sum of the one-year deal he agreed to in order to avoid arbitration), while the $31.35MM luxury hit on his extension will go into effect in 2024.
Jan. 4: The Red Sox and third baseman Rafael Devers are in agreement on an extension that will keep him in Boston through the 2033 season. Though many outlets reported this as an 11-year extension worth $331MM, Devers and the Sox had already agreed to a $17.5MM salary for 2023. In terms of new money, then, he’s agreed to a ten-year, $313.5MM extension. There are no opt-outs in the deal and he won’t have a no-trade clause. The deal is pending a physical and is not yet official. Devers is represented by Rep 1 Baseball.
Devers, 26, was set to enter his final year of club control. He was slated to reach free agency after the upcoming campaign but will now stay in Boston for an extra decade, with this agreement set to take him through the 2033 campaign and his age-36 season. It’s easily the largest deal in franchise history, which was previously held by the $217MM deal for David Price. It will also be the 10th-largest guarantee in MLB history, while the $31.35MM average annual value will get him into the top 20 all-time.
Devers will now stick with the only organization he’s ever known and could well spend his entire career in Boston. The Sox signed him out of the Dominican Republic as a 16-year-old in August of 2013, giving him a $1.5MM bonus. He worked his way through the minors and was seen by many as one of the top prospects in the sport. Baseball America ranked him in the top 20 on their top 100 list in both 2016 and 2017. In that latter season, Devers cracked the majors and debuted while just 20 years old. Despite that young age, he hit 10 home runs in just 58 games and produced a batting line of .284/.338/.482. That led to a wRC+ of 110, indicating he was 10% better than the league average hitter.
Devers endured a bit of a sophomore slump in 2018 but has put that behind him in a big way. Over the last four years, he’s hit 108 home runs and produced an overall batting line of .292/.352/.532. That production has been 32% better than league average by measure of wRC+, placing him among the top 25 hitters in the league for that time period.
For the Red Sox, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster time for the franchise over the past few years. They hoisted the World Series trophy in 2018 but then saw star right fielder Mookie Betts traded to the Dodgers alongside Price. Though the Sox got some interesting players in return, it was widely-viewed as a financially-motivated decision, a bitter pill for fans to swallow after a strong run of success that saw them win four titles from 2004 to 2018. The club slid to last place in the American League East in the shortened 2020 campaign.
Though 2021 saw the club surprise many onlookers by returning to the postseason, they had another disappointing campaign in 2022, finishing last in the division for the second time in three years. This offseason, another star player departed when shortstop Xander Bogaerts opted out of his contract. Though the Sox maintained that retaining Bogaerts was a top priority, he instead signed with the Padres for $280MM over 11 years while Boston came up well short, reportedly in the $160MM range.
With Betts and Bogaerts both leaving for California, the focus turned to Devers. With just one year until free agency, many wondered if the Fenway Faithful would have to endure a third superstar departure in a four-year span, or perhaps a three-year span if the club considered a trade. The reporting on the matter seemed dire as recently as a couple of months ago, indicating that the sides were not close in their extension talks with Boston offering something in the vicinity of $212MM. Instead, they have stepped up in a big way to ensure that Devers is the face of the franchise for years to come. In the long run, it’s possible that Devers may have to move from third base to first base, since his defense isn’t as highly regarded as his bat. But those will be conversations for later days, with another 11 years for the club to figure out how to set the lineup.
In the short term, this won’t change the makeup of the Red Sox on the field, since Devers was already going to be a part of the 2023 club. But it could have an impact on the financial ledger. Devers was previously set to have a $17.5MM count towards Boston’s luxury tax but that number will now jump to $30.09MM. The specific breakdown of the Devers deal isn’t known, but the competitive balance tax is calculated based on the average annual value of the deal, so the breakdown won’t change the CBT calculations. With that new figure in place, the club’s total CBT tally is now $224MM, according to the calculations at Roster Resource. That puts them within striking distance of the lowest luxury tax threshold, which will be $233MM this year. Any further additions, whether this offseason or as the season itself progresses, could potentially push them over the line. Since they paid the tax in 2022, they would be considered a second-time payor in 2023.
Former player Carlos Baerga first reported that the sides were in agreement on Instagram, but had the terms as 11 years and $332MM. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the $331MM figure and added the $20MM signing bonus. Jeff Passan of ESPN clarified that the deal included 2023 and would only add ten years beyond that. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first added the absence of a no-trade clause and Alex Speier of the Boston Globe first had the lack of opt-outs.
matthew07
Woohoo!
Curly Is A Dumb Stooge
Pending a physical, of course
deweybelongsinthehall
Same doc as the Giants and Mets used?
solaris602
Interesting there’s been no updates on Correa this week. That saga just drags on, but we’ll know by Friday what the fate of Bauers will be bringing an end to that loooooong, drawn out drama.
ellisd19830
Wow did yordan ever sign an extension a few months too early!
Fever Pitch Guy
dewey – With those oversized pants he wears, it will be hard for any doctor to find something wrong. LOL!
This is great news, the voice of real Sox fans was heard loud and clear by John Henry. Poor advance ticket sales was another message that landed on Henry’s doorstep. Congrats to us for letting it be known we will not accept the Red Sox being run like a small market team.
Long ago I said I hoped to keep both Devers and Xander, but if forced to choose I’d choose Devers. Much younger and a better hitter.
This is definitely a step in the right direction, perhaps Henry has finally learned his lesson!!!
CaptainJudge99
It’s about time Boston! Just don’t expect a Gold Glove Award from him anytime soon. Lol. Raffy is one of the best fastball hitters I’ve ever seen.
deweybelongsinthehall
Correa, there has been talk that he’s negotiating only with Cohen. Issue per many is an inability to insure his leg. Trying to re-work the term should his leg become an issue takes time and will likely be scrutinized by the league and the MLBPA
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
All based on his future en-devors.
I’d hate to choke on the sox stuffed down my throat…
Another goats teat that will be worn out in 10 years…
Keep him away from the buffet
juanc-2
Boooooo!
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I’m neutral on it. I applaud Bloom for answering to the fans and spending money but this is a big, big contract. I’m more happy than not, I suppose.
Glad to see you this way. I admit I searched your name just to see your reaction because I wasn’t sure which way you would agree upon. I know you wanted Devers, but I didn’t assume anything
LordD99
@Fever, clearly Henry read our thread!
CaptainJudge99
@dewey- which leg are we talkin’ about? Lol. What team do you root for, anyway? It would’ve be really strange to see Devers leave the Red Sox and join the Yankees as a free agent. Don’t think I could’ve signed up for that at all. If Manny Machado opts out next season, of his contract I can definitely see the Yankees being in play for his services though. We’ll see.
vtadave
Jake Bauers’ fate is in doubt?
avenger65
Captain – Your love of the Yankees is quite obvious. You kind of reminds me of cubs fans, being so optimistic about things that are never going to happen. Although they could’ve used Devers in place of Donaldson, but no way would Devers become a yank. And I seriously doubt that Machado is going to walk away from his contract. But stranger things have happened.
rememberthecoop
Oh yeah, talk about a club-friendly deal! The luxury tax hit on that contract is only 19.1M.
Fever Pitch Guy
pedey – Why are you not ecstatic about this? It is a fair deal, very reasonable.
Of course I’m happy about it.
Fever Pitch Guy
Lord – Yes he must have!
slimray
im glad the sox signed him .however this does not make them any better this year.they will still be in the basement.and for me that sux.its just not going to be a good year to be a sox fan this year.maybe 24 or 25.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
@Fever
I like it, I just worry about any big contract. I don’t like to tie up that much money on one guy
CaptainJudge99
@avenger65- It’s truly funny you say that, my NL favorite are the Cubs. Lol. Devers was never coming to the Yankees, and I truly never wanted it. Machado’s dream is to play for the Yankees, so if Manny opts out I wouldn’t be shocked to see him come to NY, after all his family is all here. Machado might just want to come home on the East Coast. We’ll see what happens.
Kevin 23
This deal is a bargain in today’s game! They are only paying him until his age 36 season and he is getting $9mil less per year than Judge who is getting paid until his age 40 season.
all in the suit that you wear
Pedey: I’m cautiously optimistic like you.
padam
@captain – or the Mets if he opts out and they don’t sign Correa. Honestly, as a Mets fan, I’d prefer the Mets to hold off on Correa and wait for Machadao, Ohtani, etc.
Dickiesox
I share the same perspective. My only concern is that in 5-6 years, the Sox will be paying $30 mil for a DH. Wondering if that will be the going rate by then.
deweybelongsinthehall
Not sure of why the term Friar Faithful in the updated post but can someone clarify Boston’s projected tax figure for 23? Does the updated article only take the $17.5m amount? I thought that’s why the team separated the 23 salary from the extension. While it increases the average for 24 and forward, the team should make every effort to reset this year. It’s the last chance to do it and shows how Bloom or ownership screwed up this last season by not doing it then.
JoeBrady
I’d prefer the Mets to hold off on Correa and wait for Machadao, Ohtani, etc.
==========================
If Cohen is going to spend without looking at his income statement, then it makes no difference.
But if he is at least somewhat cautious, I think Machado & Ohtani are much better fits.
Michael Macaulay-Birks
The oversize pants comment reminded me of Manny Ramirez and his two sizes too big uniforms
Deadguy
A 15.5 career WAR player is getting the 10th largest contract in MLB history? What did I miss? Chaim Bloom seems in way over his head
deweybelongsinthehall
Captain, sorry for the late response. I’m as big a Sox fan as there is but try not to be partial in my posts.
deweybelongsinthehall
F WAR. Anyone using their eyes knows Devers is amongst the best hitters and he’s young too. If this contract was given last season, I would agree because of his third base play. Everything changed with the contracts offered by other teams this year and the fans’ pending rebellion against Boston ownership. Devers signed at the perfect time. He’s have gotten the same money next off season from some team and ownership would have a bigger fan problem then
metslvt17
I don’t think Correa takes the Mets out of Ohtani. And with our elderly top of the rotation, I’ll take a star now and try to win rather than wait another year
jogo
“no way Devers would ever become a yank”. And what is your reasoning for throwing that declaration out there?
jogo
I don’t know that you would call any of these 300+ mil. deals “reasonable”. I guess you could say that 300 mil. is the going rate for a superstar player in this day and age. If I were the Sox I would want Devers to work his tail off to achieve razor-sharp, tip-top condition to try to remain at 3rd base for most of this contract A 300+ mil. contract for a slow, bat only 1st baseman is not getting the most bang for your buck. In fact, I can’t think of a player that was paid that much money that wasn’t a very good defender as well, besides the top notch offense.
jogo
Trying to state that Yankee and Cub fans are the only fanbases that dream of having a great player on their team is just a poorly thought out cheap shot at those two teams. Just about any fan of any team, including Boston, likes to think what if…You see it here from Sox fans quite a bit of the time, and other teams as well. In response to the first sentence of your post to Captain,…Avenger- Your hatred of the Yankees is quite obvious.
jogo
Captain Judge-I don’t know that B. Cashman and H. Steinbrenner have much of an appetite for another 300+ mil. contract besides the ones they already have; Judge, Cole, and Stanton. (Stanton isn’t in 300 mil. territory but his is still a pricey contract.) While everything you say about Machado is true, and it would be great to see him at 3rd for the Yanks, I don’t think Hal Steinbrenner wants to emulate Steve Cohen when it comes to throwing money around. And don’t forget Ohtani will be a free agent after next year too. Some articles I read speculated Ohtani could be the 1st 500 million dollar man. Yikes!! So dream on Baseball fans, thinking how Ohtani would fit in your favorite team’s starting rotation as well as somewhere in your lineup as the DH. Meanwhile, you have the owners of these small market clubs who will seldom spend any money to improve their team, but continue to pocket the Luxury tax dollars they receive from the big spenders. MLB and that goof Manfred should start making the cheapskates who won’t spend much to improve their clubs have to start spending a certain percentage of the tax dollars they receive on improving their ballclubs. When you have Cohen spending close to 400 million on the Mets but then you have Oakland with a payroll of around 40 million, roughly 10 times more dollars spent comparing the two teams, well, something is wrong there. And this can’t go on forever. How would you like to be an Oakland A’s fan? Talk about frustration…
Fever Pitch Guy
coop – I’ve been working a ton of hours so may have missed it, where did you hear a big chunk of the extension will be deferred and therefore lower the AAV hit to just $19.1M?
Fever Pitch Guy
juan – Don’t boo DMC, he changed the article from “Friar Faithful” to “Fenway Faithful”.
I hafta admit, it was funny as hell before it got changed! LOL!!
Fever Pitch Guy
slim – Of course you’re right, but keep in mind Bloom can’t walk until he learns how to crawl first. The important thing right now is to stop making the team worse, and extending Devers accomplishes that goal. Hopefully they will get to a point where they can actually start improving the lineup, like they did with the bullpen.
Baby steps, baby steps.
Fever Pitch Guy
pedey – Big contracts are a necessity to be serious WS contenders on a regular basis.
You ever wonder why the Rays have such poor attendance despite the fact they are in the playoffs almost every year? It’s because they never keep their star players, which is a major turnoff for fans. Hopefully that will change with Franco. The last time they had a longterm star was Longoria.
Fever Pitch Guy
dewey – Why do you think it’s the last chance to reset the LT?
If Sale has a strong year, he could easily be traded.
Who knows, maybe some sucker will trade for Story and take on his ridiculous contract!
Fever Pitch Guy
Michael – Devers has been compared to Manny in many ways, and the oversize pants has been one of those comparisons!
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
@Fever the one thing I will say that Bloom got right is age. At least Devers won’t be in his 40’s like these other big contracts. I don’t like the idea of that.
I think there should be a fine line for signing a big contract. In my opinion, no one should make 30 million a year but that is currently a trend.
At least we have a solid hitter out of it that won’t be over 40 at contracts end.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Yeah, a hitter who’s a product of steroids. Just what we need.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Why trade Story? You were upset about signing him but not Devers? What of Devers gers injured for 2 years or more of his contract? Then what? I don’t see consistency in your argument- when healthy, Sale and Story are great players. Any guy on a big contract can get injured.
The_M4N
@Fever Pitch, Big pants should be the only comparison between them. Through age 25, Manny was miles ahead as a hitter.
Boxscore
Win win. Now build around him.
Still in talks
pablo sandoval 2.0
SteveC
Where’s the wow guy??
Kruk's Beer League
Wow
Holy Cow!
I chopped him up and threw him in the river.
luclusciano
Wow
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Are you under indictment?
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
If you’re not, was it a Green River & did Mommy hurt you?
roiste
Doing this whole website a service
Holy Cow!
Carabina at your service.
vtadave
Which river?
This one belongs to the Reds
The one he has his van he lives in parked next to.
Fever Pitch Guy
dave – Must be the Hudson River, it’s the preferred choice for that sort of crowd. LOL!
Deadguy
Jesus christ Holy cow, you’re the bay harbor butcher!?!?!
cheese
Wow wow!!
CentralFan71
Was hoping the Cubs would trade for him this year or sign him as a free agent in 2023 off-season, but good for the Red Sox for signing him. He is a tremendous player and apparently a Red Sox for life. Congrats Rafael and Red Sox Nation!
stymeedone
Likely not a Red Sox for life, which is why they did not give a no trade clause. That’s a lot of Cheese for your future DH.
Mattimeo09
Isn’t he going to get them anyway in a few seasons when he gets 10 and 5 rights?
Seems like an unused bargaining chip. Unless they plan on trading him within two seasons which doesn’t make any sense
avenger65
Captain – See what I mean?
Oppo Taco
Mookie Betts was then heard grumbling, “Well, guess they didn’t want me.”
MLB-1971
…more correctly he did not want them…
JoeBrady
Unless they plan on trading him within two seasons which doesn’t make any sense
========================
He won’t accrue 10/5 for another 5 years, which means they could still trade him until the trade deadline in 2028.
Fever Pitch Guy
stymee – He’s not getting paid in just cheese, he’s getting paid in queso. LOL!
luckyh
Was replaced by Woohoo. New year, new you, you know.
phantomofdb
This seems to be roughly the standard rate for all infielders right now
bhambrave
Except Swanson.
Curly Is A Dumb Stooge
He meant to say “good infielders”
deweybelongsinthehall
Devers is a great hitter but far from being even an average fielder.
DTD/ATL1313
HE, Swanson has all around value, Devers has negative value on defense.
deweybelongsinthehall
DTD,
Devers has MVP abilities with his bat alone. Enough said.
sufferforsnakes
Hahahahaha…..
Cardsfan21
I like Swanson but that was funny as hell
Pads Fans
How many DH have won the MVP award?
DTD/ATL1313
And he sinks those abilities by being so bad everywhere else.
Joe It All
I know of at least one who will most likely win a few more
Pangolin
How many World Series have the Padres won? I can’t remember.
Pads Fans
What does that have to do with the conversation at hand? How many DH have won an MVP award?
Mattimeo09
JD Martinez came pretty close in 2018. Primary DH almost won the triple crown with Boston. 4 hits and 5 HRs away.
avenger65
The only one I can think of is David Ortiz. And I’m not even sure he did.
BaseballisLife
No one that was primarily a DH only has won the MVP. Shohei Ohtani won last year, but he also was a starting pitcher.
There have been a half dozen that have played some games at DH and won, but never with more than 14 games at DH.
Pads Fans
Thank you. My point in a nutshell. No one has ever won the MVP as a DH because defense is important.
GoogleMe
Ohtani
Mattimeo09
So many primary DHs have come close, including Alvarez this last season. I love good defense as much as the next guy, but it’s obvious that a DH could win MVP if he clearly outhits everyone else. Like if they win the triple crown
Mattimeo09
With DH in the NL now as well, it’s twice as likely
Charlies_papa
Don Baylor won the MVP primarily as a DH.
Tigers3232
@Mattime, How was Alvarez close?? He had 0 first place votes. That really is not close at all. And you take out Judge and ohtani and voters probably would ve gave first place votes to JRod or Gimenez over Alvarez. Voters still would ve been reluctant to use their top vote on a DH.
Pangolin
Juan Soto should be a DH but he plays the OF. Who cares? They’ll play Devers at 3B and get an extra bat in the lineup because he’s playable there. They’ll take a slight hit defensively and then move him to 1B/DH for the end of the contract.
This is such a non-conversation. They are paying for the bat. Like with giving up half your farm system for three years of Juan Soto the DH.
Now can we move on to how many World Series titles the Padres have won? That’s a much more interesting topic! Last I checked it was zero. Any new developments there?
Deadguy
Classless like a Yankee fan
JoeBrady
No one has ever won the MVP as a DH because defense is important.
=============================
But as everyone keeps telling you, and you choose to ignore, Devers is not a DH. FWIW, Miggy won B2B MVPs at 3rd, and he was probably worse defensively than Devers.
JoeBrady
but it’s obvious that a DH could win MVP if he clearly outhits everyone else.
=======================
Of course. Plenty of poor defensive players have won MVP. Padsfan wants to pretend that Devers is a DH, rather than a weak-fielding 3B, to try to make a case that Devers will never win the MVP, so ergo, it is a bad signing.
BaseballisLife
Miggy is one of my all time favorite players and he stunk on defense. He also won the Triple Crown and had a 7 WAR 3 years in a row and averaged a 178 OPS+.
Please don’t mention Devers and his 3 or 4 WAR in the same breath as Miggy. He isn’t half as good.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Wrong again. Miggy was above league average in 2012 and at league average in 2013. Devers in 8 years has never been league average.
Guessing Miggy was worse than Devers is so typical of the stuff that pops into your head and ends up on the sight. It takes two seconds to validate your comment. People might respect your opinions more if they had ANY foundation in fact.
deweybelongsinthehall
There was no DH then but Killebrew would have been one in 69 when he won his MVP. He sucked in the field.
deweybelongsinthehall
Killebrew was an MVP and he stunk in the field.v Had there been a DH then, he would have been one. Should his family give back the award?
Thornton Mellon
Baylor played 65/162 games at DH in ’79. Voters were all over that RBI total (139). One could have a very strong argument that guys like Ken Singleton, Fred Lynn, George Brett, Jim Rice, and Bobby Grich….maybe even Sixto Lezcano if he hadn’t missed 24 games…had better seasons.
bhambrave
2022
Swanson = 5.7 WAR
Devers = 4.4 WAR
Enough said.
JoeBrady
Miggy was above league average in 2012 and at league average in 2013.
========================
Wrong again. BR has him as -0.2 and -1.3 in those two years. FG has him at an astonishing -4 and -17 DRS in those two years, and -1.8 & 7.1 UZR.
SteveC
Pulledabloom prefers fielding percentage to decide how good or bad a player is defensively. Easier to be right when silly stuff like range doesn’t need to be considered
JoeBrady
2021-22
Swanson = 7.6 WAR
Devers = 7.9 WAR
And Devers is almost 3 years younger.
Enough said.
JoeBrady
Down below, he is comparing Cal Ripken to Ozzie Smith. Watch, because he will almost get worse from here.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – those aren’t stats they are projections based on faulty assumptions.
Learn the game. Facts are data produced directly during a game. SImulations/Projections are manipulated data built upon assumptions made by individuals and validated by co=workers.
Modern metrics are simulated data not facts. They should be used with that understanding to fine tune specific aspects of player performance but they don’t change the facts. My facts stand correct. What you wrote is absolutely irrelevant.
PulledaBloom
SteveC – The range of a player on specific play can be measured but the range on the next play can not be. Thus, it’s a projection not a fact. If you prefer to guess about the future rather than use actual facts that’s your call. To attempt to make fun of someone for knowing more about the game than you is embarrassing for you. Read some books about what facts are and come back to me with a better statistical background and we can talk.
PulledaBloom
It’s really hard to discuss anything with you when your intelectual level is so low. Stop while you are behind.
bhambrave
@Joe: So you’re saying that Swanson has been comparable to Devers over the last two years, overall. Either Swanson is better than people have been saying, or Devers isn’t MVP caliber.
JoeBrady
Not exactly.
The issue with a two-year comparison is that 2022 was a career year for Swanson. In his previous 4 seasons, he ranged in the 2-3 bWAR range. I do not expect a repeat of his walk year results.
But that said, I do believe he is a pretty good player. He probably isn’t worth $25.3M * 7, but I don’t think he is far off that either.
And the fact that Devers has already finished in the top-14 3x in the past 4 years suggests that he is an MVP-caliber player.
stymeedone
Yeah, but its more than the going rate for a DH.
GaryWarriorsRedSox
He’s not DHing now. He’s playing third base now.
In a few years when he is DH and salaries have jumped, this will be the going rate for a DH. Get it?
justkidding
This! Excactly
Pads Fans
So you are trying to say that in 2024 or 2025 the salaries for DH will have jumped into the $30 million area?
Mets6986??
But he’s not a DH. You sound kind live silly saying he is.
Salvi
In 2023, Devers finished 23 out of 36 in OAA among qualifying Third Basemen. By your logic, there are at least 14 DHs playing 3B.
Then you add in all the 1B and OFers that arent great defenders. How many DHs do you think are allowed at one time?
BaseballisLife
In 2023? Can I borrow your crystal ball?
Over the last 3 seasons no one was worse than Devers. baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_aver…
When it comes to DRS, only Bohm was worse.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=fld…
Devers has a lead glove and the range of a tortoise.
all in the suit that you wear
The Red Sox have won a World Series with Devers at third base. They can do it again.
DogDays2
Ha those days are long gone.
Great logic though. They won with Shane Victorino too.
Bring him back! They won with him!
all in the suit that you wear
If Shane Victorino was 26 years old like Devers, I would certainly bring him back.
Pads Fans
In 2018 they won in spite of Devers. Devers was a below league average hitter that season 94 OPS+ who played atrocious defense too.
In 2018 Devers was surrounded by great players in the field. Betts, Bogaerts, Benintendi, Martinez. Not one on the squad today as good as any of those guys. They had one of the best defensive OF’s in baseball.
Yes, the Red Sox can win with Devers on the team again, but they will need to do some heavy lifting with the wallet to make that happen. They need at least 3 more guys that can hit for a 135+ OPS+. They don’t come cheap and there are none on the team today.
JoeBrady
If Shane Victorino was 26 years old like Devers,
========================
The dude was an inspiration. I watched him in the first season and knew there was no way he would last 3 full years the way he threw his body around.
I’d like Shane to get into Verdugo’s ear to light a fire in him.
Mariners_Mojo
Congrats
manfraud
Amen
Catuli Carl
and Awomen
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Denden
Wow
Gwynning's Anal Lover
Wow
Deadguy
Wow
SteveC
Thank goodness
Thomar
I’m substituting: Wow
chicagofan1978
Another crazy contract
aggee10
Devers is 26 yrs old, The contract will take him to age 38. Definitely not as bad as the other 10+ year contracts handed out.
put it in the books
You don’t want a 41 year old Trea Turner on your team?
VonPurpleHayes
Or Correa. Or Verlander. Or Scherzer. Or Lindor.
Mets6986??
Nothing wrong with a 41 Verlander after cy young at 39.
VonPurpleHayes
@Mets6986 We’ll see. Father time is undefeated. All that being said, none of these contracts should be valued on the players final years. I still think it’s funny that people care so much about the years. I don’t really see the Turner, Lindor, Bogaerts or Devers contracts crippling anyone.
stymeedone
Or Pujols, or Miggy.
rct
I think Von’s point is that you never know who will be effective at the later stages of their career. Could be Verlander, could be Lincecum.
Mets6986??
I agree with your point but Verlander wasn’t signed to one of these long contracts.
Salvi
Did Verlander get a 10+ years contract? Verlander goes bad, team is only on the hook for 1 or 2 years. A lot better than 10 years of a Eric Hosmer or Albert Pujols type situation.
Pads Fans
Did Hosmer get a 10 year deal? I must have missed that.
Did paying Hosmer’s salary for 3+ years just to get rid of him keep the small market Padres from spending on top players? I must have missed that too.
Verlander had a 7 year $180 million deal he signed just before his age 30 season began in late March 2013.
MLB-1971
….or a 41 year old Xander Bogaerts on your team either…
Pads Fans
Devers will be 27 when this extension starts in 2024 and will be a DH for at least 10 of the 11 years of the extension.
Chris_Favreau
The extension starts this year and runs through 2033
Hammerin' Hank
At least he’ll be on the field, unlike Tatis.
Polyglot
No it does not, it starts in 2024. He was paid 17m in Arbitration for 2023 and his extension hits next season at about 30m yr annually.
Mystery Team
A Padres fan commenting on what he perceives to be a bad signing is always hilarious. My man you guys corner the market on suspect contracts so glass houses dude.
Chris_Favreau
You’re wrong, this contract extension supercedes the pre arbitration contract. At least do your homework… All 60 seconds of it, before you respond.
Polyglot
Ken Rosenthal,.
Rafael Devers in agreement with Red Sox on 11-year, $331M extension that begins in 2024. Deal includes $20M signing bonus. First with agreement was Carlos Baerga. Amount is indeed $331M, not $332M.
It Starts in 2024 buddy.
Pads Fans
He was already signed for 2023 and the article has been updated since my post.
So let me update my comment. Devers will be 27 in 2024 and will be a DH from that point on.
Pads Fans
Maybe you should read the articles when they are first posted instead of coming on hours later and making stupid comments.
When first reported, the article did not say it superseded the arbitration year.
Pads Fans
What the Padres did or didn’t do does not make this a good contract. $331 million for a kid that will be a DH in a year or two is a bad deal. Full stop.
lamars
Only you think he will be DH in a year or two. And in two years they wanted to move him off 3rd base. They could move him to 1B.
oot
When is the $20 million signing bonus being paid? 2023? Or later?
Polyglot
Per Today’s headline 1/11/2023 The extension Starts in 2024, you can admit you were wrong now Chris_Favreau
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/rafael-devers-extension…
avenger65
If it’s a ten year contract and Devers is now 26, I’m pretty sure he’ll be 36 at the end of his contract.
MLB-1971
26 + 10 = 38 …… must be the new Commen Core that some of the states are teaching in the grade schools. Lol
Devers will probably be moved off 3B half through the contract…
Henry Silvestre
This is good for baseball..and Great for Sox
Fever Pitch Guy
Henry – I agree, homegrown stars should remain with their teams. Even though I’m a Sox fan, I was happy Judge signed with the Yanks. This is definitely comparable.
Mattimeo09
Absolutely. I love it when a player stays on 1 team his whole career. Regardless of the team
PulledaBloom
Fever – I agree hometown stars should be resigned but to pass on Mookie, Benny and Bogey to sign Devers is scraping the bottom of the barrel. If he played defense at an acceptable level you could live with a $30MM contract. He’s a DH which should cap at $25MM. He’s comparable to Alvarez in Houston who got $21MM per year because their GM is a lot smarter. $132MM difference with Alvarez over the length of the contract is beyond significant, it’s albatross worthy. GMs over the next decade will be paying for this Bloom mistake.
avenger65
Alvarez should definitely be in the 300+mm group. Blame his agent, and in part Alvarez for accepting the deal, for his relatively low salary.
Fever Pitch Guy
Pulled – We all know Bloom screwed up royally by not signing Devers years ago. Alvarez was signed a full three years before he would have been eligible for free agency, Devers was signed just one year before free agency.
So sure, it’s an overpay. But Bloom backed himself into a corner with the Story contract and the Xander non-contract, so signing Devers was the right thing to do. Hopefully Bloom learned from this teachable moment.
PulledaBloom
Fever – Absolutely another Bloom mistake but at the time of the deal last year for Alvarez Devers had ONE less year of control. His comp throughout the past season was $19.1MM plus an uplift for the missing year of control. What’s a fair price for that uplift? I suggested 20MM so all last year I suggested Alvarez’ 6 years and $115MM could be translated to 6 years and $135MM or splurge and offer 6 years and $150MM which is $25MM or the cap for a DH. $8MM more than the highest DH compensation is on Bloom. Are the Red Sox better off with this deal?
No. Here is why:
1 – Devers won’t come close to living up to it and this will burden future GMs
2 – Fans might have forced a firing of Bloom which would be great
3 – As the face of the franchise they will cater to Devers even more
4 – They lost at least $12MM a year for over a decade in Salary Cap
This is Bloom’s biggest mistake. Betts, Bogey and Devers should have all remained here for fair market value. The best player got fair market in LAD, the second best player got above fair value in SD and now Devers got far more than fair value to the detriment of the ball club for a decade.
You can’t possibly suggest Bloom will learn from his mistakes. After over 100 of them he hasn’t learned anything why now?
Denden
I was hoping to resign Devers and sign Judge but we’d be over the tax so maybe just wishful thinking
MacGromit
Pulled,
I agree that’d be ideal but that line of thinking also means the BoSox wouldn’t have had Pedro, Schilling, Ortiz, Damon, Wakefield from the Reverse the Curse team… Of course, you’d also have the Babe and no Curse to start with. Hmmm, I take it back… Let’s get Scott Boras to just negotiate with the teams that draft players.
WobblyGreg
THANK THE LORD.
toomanyblacksinbaseball
What wrath has God wrought?
Rallyshirt
OOF.
omar salazar
who ever is leaking info to Carlos Baerga is the real hero
Murray Rothbard
Benny Agbayani and Carl Everett missed out on the scoop
YankeesBleacherCreature
Rey Ordonez is still waiting for his text.
rct
Carl Everett needs to see a trade before he will believe it.
Hurricane Sandy
Don’t overlook the contributions of Alex Ochoa and Butch Huskey in breaking this story
Denden
I heard from Jeff Reardon and Tom Brunansky bmakes the catch!!!
Fever Pitch Guy
Sandy – Eric Gagne reported Kimbrel was tipping his pitches, Gagne noticed it while watching TV.
True story.
roiste
Jeff Passan lies awake at night praying on Carlos Baerga’s downfall
Bruin1012
Finally some great news from the front office.
Jake Biggar
As a Sox fan I’m happy. I don’t care if we overpaid at all on this one we NEEDED this done for our sanity!!!
roiste
This isn’t even an overpay. Fair deal in the current environment
The Natural
My guess is that Passan is more accurate than Rosenthal. Seems to make no sense to extend him a year yesterday and then this contract today.
YankeesBleacherCreature
He’s an arb player so technically they tendered him a one-year contract. This extension followed that for review by his reps and it became a quick agreement.
Bk11235 2
Definitely not overpaid!
baseballguru
Time to go get Devers Jersey’s and a new lucky lid to show John Henry How Redsox Nation Works! Our turn! As Kevin Millar would put it “Time to Cowboy Up!”
PiratesFan1981
Oh wow. Red Sox getting serious again! World Series here they come!
Clepto_
Lol!
hiflew
Well, that just made the trade deadline and next offseason a lot less interesting.
gfan
Right ?
Next year everyone after Ohtani with really no other impact players at all.
Holy Cow!
Someone will have a great contract year and get overpaid.
avenger65
Yeah. Ohtani. The Angels will make him the first $50mm a year player.
O'sSayCanYouSee
Manny Machado can opt out.
Dbacks44
Wow. Love that guy! Awesome hitter.
luclusciano
There it is. Good job Red Sox – and wow, great job Devers. As a Yankee fan I am not looking forward ti watching you destroy the ball for the next decade.
Joe says...
Absolutely!! Devers kills the Yankees.
Though it is good to see Boston remember they’re a big market team that should be keeping their homegrown guys.
redsoxu571
Don’t forget, even the Yankees have let the likes of Cano and Pettitte leave when circumstances warranted. Betts likely didn’t want to stay in Boston, and while Bogaerts would have there is a reason he was the player who got by far the biggest overpay relative to projection this offseason. Bogaerts was totally worth keeping at expected price and even a little more, but not that much.
We have to remember that each player is an individual/unique piece of a roster, with his own pros, cons, upsides, and downsides. First the market must be determined, and then a team must decide whether said market price is worth paying based on individual valuation. Blanket keeping of all guys just because a team can afford the price isn’t a good idea. For example, the Giants sure didn’t regret that Sandoval took Boston’s offer on the open market, and the Nationals sure wish that they had “let” Strasburg go.
Joe says...
Pettittr wanted to go home to Houston. He also wanted back to NY. Cano got way overpayed. XB wanted to be in Boston and Boston didn’t even make a competitive offer before SD got involved. I did hear Betts wanted to leave and there’s nothing you can do about that, same as Pettitte.
I just don’t have a high opinion of Bloom.
Tassix
The Mets are still paying Cano this year.
Phil Ebarb
How was Robinson Cano way overpaid? He was given a contract that paid him 24mil per year after four years of 6.4, 5.2, 7.3 and 5.9 fWAR? Obviously the contract didn’t work out the way the Mariners hoped but that doesn’t seem like a contractual overpay based on his stats. That said I know very little about the Yankees or the Mariners so I wasn’t watching him at the time and just have counting stats to tell me he seems like he was a decent value proposition.
Joe says...
The AAV wasn’t terrible. In fact the Yankees were willing to go higher on the AAV but for three less years. And 24 million per year at that time was a lot. It’s obvious his last three years were god awful. I’d say the Yankees dodged a bullet but they signed Ellsbury instead.
YankeesBleacherCreature
@Phil Cano was one of Jay-Z’s first clients with his upstart sports agency. They were looking into making a splash and got it with the M’s. He was well worth the money for the first half of the deal.
kzw
Aren’t the Mets still paying Bobby Bonilla?
Pads Fans
If I were a Yankee fan I would not be too scared of Devers. His .242/.301/.468/.769 slashline vs the Yankees is pretty anemic compared to how he hits the rest of the AL East.
Joe says...
His hits are usually important ones. He’s the guy I worry about more than anyone else on the Sox.
Tassix
He’s a Jays killer. Probably made the difference in the wildcard in 2021.
He’s a career 123 wRC+
Vs Jays – 132
Vs Yankees – 100
Vs Rays – 91
vs Orioles – 125
Hammerin' Hank
Player vs team stats are relatively meaningless. He could easily go out this year and torch Yankee pitching. There’s a lot of randomness involved, just like with clutch hitting.
roiste
No, he is Gerrit Cole’s father, it’s a proven fact
PulledaBloom
Tassix – All great facts but do the Blue Jays pitch the same guys every year? Like I said, nice facts. Just wish they applied to the situation.
Past performance is just that in the past. Facing the same pitcher in the future allows you to extrapolate but the same team is meaningless other than the ball park’s impact.
avenger65
I judge players by my eyes, not some useless statistics. Although I commend you for not bringing WAR, fWAR, OAA, fip, bapip and on and on and on up in your comment.
avenger65
I don’t know. It seems that Byron Buxton kills the White Sox every year. I don’t know if that fits your theory because the Sox have had the same rotation for about three years now.
BaseballisLife
You hadn’t said anything before. Hammerin Hank did though.
Pads Fans
I will take your word for that.
Pads Fans
avenger, Now we know why your comments are always so far off base.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe – Right you are. Last year I did a comparison of clutch stats between Xander and Devers, it wasn’t even close. And for his career against all teams Devers is a .905 OPS hitter with RISP.
He has the same demeanor in big moments that Papi and Manny had, nothing fazes the guy.
We saw that years ago when a 20-year-old Devers took a Chapman 103MPH fastball and deposited it into the Yankee Stadium seats for a 9th-inning gametying homerun.
JoeBrady
He has the same demeanor in big moments that Papi and Manny had, nothing fazes the guy.
===========================
That’s his athleticism. It’s as easy for him to strike out against a #6 SP as it is for him to take the best pitchers in BB deep. And while I get on him for his conditioning, the dude is built like an ox. It just doesn’t matter who the pitcher is, or where he throws the pitch.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe – I gave you a thumbs up!
redsoxu571
As a Red Sox fan, I am pleased that Judge and Devers will be the first faces of the rivalry for the next decade!
Yankee Clipper
First: Congratulations to the Red Sox diehards on here – JoeBrady, RSox, Suit, Dewey, FPG, RedSox, Bruin, and several others (apologies for not naming ya).
Second: This is excellent for baseball for several obvious reasons, including a major market team acting like one.
Last: I really hope this isn’t a move to appease the fanbase for awhile to go back to operating in the status quo, similar to the Yankees for so many years, leaving gaping holes on the team. Perhaps Henry got the message from the angry fanbase; perhaps this was the plan all along; or perhaps Bloom realized he’s on really thin ice and knew he couldn’t lose Devers. Regardless, it’s an awesome, refreshing sign that they did this.
I know you all are passionate like Yankees fans, so enjoy it for your 18 hours and get your boot right back on Henry!
JoeBrady
Congratulations to the Red Sox diehards on here – JoeBrady, RSox, Suit, Dewey, FPG, RedSox, Bruin, and several others
=========================
I appreciate your kind sentiments. But I don’t really expect any more moves this off-season, unless they can arrange something with Miami and Ceddanne.
But that said, hopefully this can be the start of extending our players, at an earlier age.
Yankee Clipper
Hey, JoeBrady, you’ve maintained that Bloom has a plan and this could very well be the start of its active, long-term implementation for their near- future build (obviously including Mayer, York, & others). I agree that probably not much else is happening this offseason, however, but if they were going to make one big move, I’d say this was the one to make.
JoeBrady
It’s speculative, with a lot of ‘ifs’, but we could have a pretty good locked-up IF for a while if Casas, Yorke, and Mayer are the real thing. This is what Henry was referring to earlier this year, and what Theo was saying, but a lot of fans didn’t understand the idea of a bridge.
Even with big market money, sometimes you need to money to fill in the gaps between good rookie foundations.
all in the suit that you wear
Clipper: Thanks! Hopefully Bloom has a plan. I think he is generally headed in the right direction.
Yankee Clipper
Suit! Congrats, man! This was a big one. I still don’t get Xander, but as you’ve also said all along, Bloom may be playing the long game here. Regardless, it’s one huge check mark in the win column for the Sox & Bloom/Henry. It’s a clear power move and, imo, is a big step towards redemption for them. Hopefully they will keep it going, brother.
The Yankees-Sox matchups will be interesting if our respective top/key prospects pan out. There will be some really good, young, competitive talent on the field – like old times!
Fever Pitch Guy
suit – I hafta admit, I was waiting to see your response on this. Just a few days ago you strongly supported Henry/Bloom’s refusal to give out mega-contracts by saying they were almost always huge mistakes.
So I wondered, will this FINALLY be the time when you actually disagree with Bloom/Henry on a decision? I leaned firmly against “no”, and you didn’t disappoint. LOL!
It’s all good though brother, the Sox are a better team with Devers than without. That’s the bottom line. If it turns out to be an overpay, Henry can afford it. He won’t be clipping coupons anytime soon.
all in the suit that you wear
Clipper: Exciting times are ahead. I can’t wait!
all in the suit that you wear
Fever: I am “ok” with the Devers extension, not crazy about it. He is signed through age 36 which is good. They can also possibly trade him if needed. I will root for it to be a good decision. More than anything I root for the Red Sox. I didn’t like the Story signing and I wish they never went there.
Fever Pitch Guy
suit – Thanks for the reply. I agree, signing a player thru Age 36 is a lot more palatable than thru Age 40-41 etc.
I didn’t know you were against the Story signing. There was like a thousand comments posted back then, so I must have missed yours.
On a positive note, I am very excited about Yoshida. Dude reminds me of Boggs, an on base machine that HOPEFULLY Cora will put at leadoff and keep him there every game.
all in the suit that you wear
Fever: Age 36 is pretty reasonable. I saw Story as eventually blocking Mayer and Yorke. Now Mikey Romero is in the middle infield mix too. I guess they can cut Story and eat his contract if needed. I hope you are right about Yoshida and I hope he can play LF.
Fever Pitch Guy
Clip – Thank you!! I do long for the early-2000’s when there was no greater rivalry than Sox/Yanks. Hopefully we will get back to that someday, the Sox have to hold up their end to do so.
luclusciano
Yes FPG- agreed!! I am getting tired of Houston taking your place. Year or two, we will hate each other again. 🙂
JoeBrady
With all due respect, I still hate you. And in time, hopefully you will hate me too:)
Yankee Clipper
Agreed FPG. I mean we love to hate each other; we don’t even like to hate the Astros.
Fever Pitch Guy
Clip – I’m from a state that is rather evenly divided between Yanks fans and Sox fans, with a smattering of Mets fans thrown in. There’s never been any hate.
In fact, a girlfriend of mine was a Yankee fan. We would wear our gear to both Yankee Stadium and Fenway, and the looks & comments we got were priceless!
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Aww how syrupy sweet: Yanks fans and Red Sox fans in a huge communal group hug. Wow the brotherhood is strong today! Valentines Day is not for another month so I don’t wanna see any smooching or other PDA yet. 😉
Yankee Clipper
Always room for three ISOB……
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Well I’m West Coast so I don’t want to be the third wheel, if you know what I mean, or sloppy seconds. But I appreciate the inclusion … it’s all good.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
First reported by Carlos Baerga on his Instagram lol.
luclusciano
Hahaha. Just read that. Maybe he works for TradeRumors now.
Holy Cow!
That’s not the first time.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
I didn’t even read the article. I saw on twiter that Hector Gomez posted about Carlos Baerga posting it on his Instagram. I posted a link on the Devers and Red Sox avoid arbitration on here.
semipro24
He’s got a pretty good feed in that dugout.
SteveC
@semipro24 – That’s a different Carlos
talkingjunky
About time something good happened for the Sox. Pretty sure the fans yelling at John Henry at the Winter Classic got this done.
avenger65
I wish the other Sox had the chance to express their anger at Hahn at the winter classic but he cancelled it because he didn’t have the guts to face the fans.
Poolhalljunkies
BOOM!!
solaris602
No – BLOOM!! Anyone from the Bloomraggers Corps care to retract any of their posits from the past few weeks? 😉
Jurassic Carl
No. All he did was given an extension which he should have done months ago. The roster is still horrendous and going to finish in last place. He still needs to be fired. Nothing has changed.
Fever Pitch Guy
Carl – You’re absolutely right, the extension should have been done months if not years ago. If it had been, it would have been at a lower dollar amount because recent signings throughout baseball elevated Devers’ market value. A year ago he probably would have signed for $300M or less.
And I think it’s really sad that some people are giving Bloom “credit” for signing Devers. He went to Henry and asked, this is what it will take to extend Devers … do you approve? No way Bloom makes this offer without Henry’s approval.
And no question Bloom was forced to pivot to a Devers extension after the Xander debacle, where Bloom obviously misread the shaping market. If Xander had been signed, Devers would likely not be signed to an extension. There’s no way the Sox would have locked up three infielders with a combined $630M+ in guaranteed money … especially with Yorke and Mayer on the way up.
LFGMets (Metsin7)
Overpay. Basically a DH. His defense will only get worse. Unless he hits like Frank Thomas, I see this contract aging poorly
Kruk's Beer League
Like most of those Mets contracts.
LFGMets (Metsin7)
@Kruk not really a good comeback, I don’t like any of the contracts the Mets have given out in the past 2 years
Hammerin' Hank
Great comeback with the Mets throwing all this stupid money around.
roiste
He’s only 26, and improved with the glove last year. The defense still has room to grow
Pads Fans
His defense has a LONG way to go to be even serviceable. He went from a -13 to a -6 DRS and from a -13 to a -2 OAA last season. Over the last 3 seasons he was the 2nd worst 3B in DRS and absolute worst in OAA.
Sox will get one, maybe 2 years of him at 3B in this extension before they are forced to move him to DH.
PulledaBloom
Pads – More Devers defensive facts. Most errors at 3B since 2017 when he entered the league. Lowest career fielding percentage at 3B.
Add to that the breaks the score keepers give him and his actual misplayed baseballs are over 50 per year. Don’t believe me? Go into Baseball Reference and count the balls that are recorded as base hit to 3B. Then look up the video and decide for yourself if the ball would have been caught by any normal High School 3B. Thank goodness Baseball Reference gives proof to show just how bad he’s been.
If you ever pitched and had a butcher in your infield you know how much you hate any ball hit to them. In fact, you adjust your game in hopes of keeping the ball away from him. That’s what the Red Sox pitching staff has had to do for 6 seasons. Poor Sale. His slider to right handed hitters is one of the most frequent ground ball opportunities for Devers. That’s why his pitch count is higher than it should be. Devers extends his innings all the time and has impacted his ERA and WHIP on many, many occasions
.
roiste
As I said, he improved last year, which the stats you cite demonstrate. Cutting the errors from 21 to 14 and -13 OAA to -2 OAA brought him from terrible to just a bit below average, which is more than fine with the offense he brings to the position. And it showed qualitatively – anyone who actually watched the team last year could tell you that he was noticeably cleaner out there.
The dude is a great athlete, his problem has always been concentration and mental errors. And again, he’s only 26 next season. Is it really that crazy to believe he did some mental maturing in his age-25 year? Guys that age take big steps forward all the time.
If he can keep his defense in the realm of -2 OAA at third base, then he’s going to be in the MVP conversation for a lot of this contract. I see no reason why he couldn’t hang around to play a passable third base for the first half of this deal.
avenger65
AAAARRGG! Those useless numbers again! Eyes. Look at Devers performance with your eyes. Don’t let numbers tell you how good or bad a player is.The Tiger’s didn’t sign Cobb because of his metrics. They SAW how good he was.
avenger65
What about an abnormal high school third baseman?
Pads Fans
Our eyes tell us he is slow as a turtle, doesn’t get to as many balls as he should, and then he throws away more balls than anyone else.
Guess what the stats tell us.
He is slow as a turtle
He has the smallest range in the game
He made the most throwing errors in the game
Dang. Will you look at that. The stats didn’t lie.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Defensive Indifference- Advent of a new stat for the hot corner for all the times Raffy simply gives up on the play.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Not to mention the times he simply gives up on balls not hit right at him
PulledaBloom
Roiste = The dude is not a great athlete, he’s been a great hitter for the last two years. He’s not what most people consider a good athlete. That’s an opinion of yours not a fact.
One season doesn’t reverse the trend of nearly a decade. He was still well below league average for his 6th consecutive MLB season and your SPIN on it is that he’s improving? People said that after 2017 that he would get better and he didn’t. Then in 2019 he had a better than normal year and everyone proclaimed him highly improved and in 2020 he had his worst defensive season. He can play well in April and make 10 errors in May. That inconsistency has led to him having more errors than any other 3B since he arrived in 2017.
Lets talk statistics. Any small enough sample can produce highly misleading results. His historical trend is a sine curve well below the league average line. The fact that 2022 wasn’t “AS BAD” as 2021 doesn’t suggest improvement in light of his complete history. It’s nothing more than a peak in an ever oscillating range of performance.
He’ll never be an MVP especially now that he has nothing around him. He’ll be a solid hitter in the middle of a bad line-up. MVPs lead the league in RBIs, Runs and other team stats. That won’t happen with the Red Sox line-up until Bloom is gone and some talent is added to the roster.
Your opinion is not based on fact. It completely ignores Devers history as a defender. He wasn’t good when he broke in at Rookie Ball, never was good during his ascension to the majors and has been the worst in history since he arrived in Boston. You OPINION is not founded by facts. It’s really a hope rather than opinion. Being optimistic is great but it’s not realistic.
PulledaBloom
Very odd comment. Was the high school 3B abnormally good or bad? If good then he’s better than Devers, if bad then he’s probably comparable!
CJML
He just turned 26 years old and can mash. I’d much rather have this contract than Correa, judge, Xander or Turner right now.
PulledaBloom
Turner? Seriously. Did you mean Justin Turner? Trea Turner is light years better than Devers, will last far longer and even if his speed drops off late in his contract his power and average will continue to outshine anything Devers does.
I agree on Correa from an injury standpoint. Judge is so dramatically incorrect that I’m not even addressing it. Bogey’s deal makes much more sense than Devers deal because Bogey plays defense, puts the ball in play, stays fit and can move to other positions as he ages. Devers is a DH who is likely to look like Panda by 33.
CJML
You are getting 7-8 years of prime Devers as opposed to 3-4 years of prime judge, Turner, Correa and Xander’s. In a vacuum for one year I might take any of those other players. Judge also pretty injury prone and almost 31.
PulledaBloom
CJML – There is nothing to suggest that Turner, Judge or Bogaerts will have 3-4 years of prime play. There is no single answer when it comes to how long a current athlete will be effective. Brady blows the old assumptions away. Verlander, Scherzer to name a couple more exceptions. Of the players listed any of the three could be an exception but the odds of an over weight 3B lasting beyond his years is just hope. I’ll take Bogey, Judge or Turner over Devers in 5 years anytime.
CJML
No doubt one of those guys could play well into their upper 30s. More than likely they will all have significant declines by 36-37. Outside of Nelson Cruz freakish hitting at age 39-40 as a dh only I can’t think of any position players in the post steroid era that I would consider really good players. Pujols strung together a nice season last year as a dh primarily against lefties. Id 100 percent take age 31-36 Devers over age 37-41 judge, Turner, Correa, Bogaerts and it’s not even close. Pujols, miggy, votto we’re generational talents and fell off the map.
PulledaBloom
CJML – The future is hard to predict. Miggy who I thought was the heir apparent to Pujols as the greatest player in baseball started young like Devers at age 20 and fell off the table after his 33 year old season. Pujols who got the torch passed from Bonds as the greatest baseball player at that time fell off the table after his 32 year old season.
What do Pujols and Cabrera have in common with Devers? Culture and body type. Granted Pujols was far more muscular than Devers and Miggy but all three have a big frame played 3B until they hurt their team so much by their late twenties that they got move and their size grew.
That means Devers is highly likely to dramatically drop off after his 32 or best case 33 year old season. That’s assuming he’s comparable to these to benchmark guys. We all know he’s not so the drop off should happen sooner which makes the last 5 years of the deal very risky and even discounting the salary by 7% per year the $33MM will be a huge over pay when Devers is 30!! He needs to put up 180 OPS+ numbers in the first five years to make this deal even close to being a break even. Devers has had an OPS+ over 130 in 3 of his first 6 seasons. 180? No way. 150 without JD, Bogey and others = NO WAY. 130 would be a good season with his current team. That’s not going to pay for the contract.
Why so down on Trea Turner. Correa gets hurt so I can see that. Bogey must not be a favorite of yours but I’ll take him at 37-41 over Devers after his dropoff at 32 for his 31 to 36 year old years. Turner isn’t injury prone. He stays in shape. He hits for power considering his size. He’s a smart base runner and a plus defender. Why will he drop off so dramatically at 37-41 in any area other than SBs? I believe he’s the best SS in baseball and will continue to be through his mid 30s. His late 3os might not be as great but he won’t be an embarrassment like Devers after 32.
Check out Miggy and Pujol’s numbers. They are far better than Devers and they had a much better work ethic based on stories reported on the three players.
Denden
I was hoping we’d still judgevif not resign Devers if not both.
Slayer666
I’d say this was the best contract given this winter. The dude can play.
Pads Fans
Correction: The guy can hit. Defense counts too and he cannot play defense. At all.
Hammerin' Hank
It’s a lot better than the stupid contract your team gave Hosmer, who can’t hit or field lol.
roiste
Defense counts much less than hitting in general, and Devers is better at hitting than he is bad at defense.
Plus, your team just signed Bogaerts to a contract of the same length even though he is four years older, a worse hitter, and also a bad defender. Y’all can’t really talk down on this one
BaseballisLife
A run saved is worth exactly the same as a run scored.
Defense is equal in value to offense.
Pads Fans
What gives you the impression I own the Padres?
What makes you think I approved of the contract the Padres gave Hosmer? Those that have been on here long enough can tell you I was all over Preller for that stupid move.
Still doesn’t make this a good deal for the Red Sox. They panicked when advance ticket sales were WAY down and did this as a PR move to get the Fenway fanatics to go buy tickets for what will be not be close to a playoff team.
But keep on trying to spin it to what the Padres are doing.
Pads Fans
At the end of the game they add up the runs on the board and the team with the most runs wins. So, a run scored has the same value as a run prevented. That much is not up for debate.
Let’s compare the 2 players
5.8 WAR vs 4.4 WAR last season
12.2 WAR vs 8.7 WAR the last 3 seasons
23.4 WAR vs 14.3 WAR from 2018 – 2022
2018 was Devers 1st full season in the majors. He only played 58 games in 2017 so didn’t think it was fair to include that.
Now let’s look at defense
4 DRS vs -2 DRS last season
-9 DRS vs -23 DRS last 3 seasons
-22 DRS vs -39 DRS 2018 – 2022
Both are bad. One is substantially worse.
On offense one has a 133 OPS+ and the other a 125 OPS+ from 2018-2022.
You can decide who you think is better. I know which one I would take.
PulledaBloom
Roiste – Interesting comment. Devers offense off sets his bad defense. My question is why not trade the guy and let his defense be some other teams problem and find a 3B that hits and fields? Betts was stellar at defense and hitting and Bloom tossed him away. Bogey the same. Heck if you like big bat no glove why get rid of Schwarber or Renfroe. Those are comps for Devers not guys like Bogey or Betts. Devers is and always will be one-dimensional thus deserves less money. Bloom looks foolish paying him $33MM a year when Houston is paying Alvarez $19.1MM against the luxury tax.
That’s why Houston is a power house in the AL and Boston finishes last under Bloom. The numbers don’t lie. You don’t have to hate Bloom personally to point out his mistakes and I think over paying Devers by over $13MM per year for 11 years is a perfect example of how bad Bloom is at doing his job. This is on nobody but BLOOM. Biggest mistake to date because it is irreversible. Mookie’s money could have been spent wisely but it wasn’t. There is no taking back the Devers deal so this deal hurts for over a decade whereas the Mookie deal only kept the team from winning for half a decade or so. Hard to believe Bloom could surpass the biggest mistake since the sale of Ruth TWICE!! Bloom is now INFAMOUS in Red Sox history!!
WORST GM IN THE HISTORY OF THE BALL CLUB!!!
olmtiant
I don’t care if he plays third with a frying pan!!! Nearly half of outs in games are K”s I’ll take my chances on other half…. There’s only One Mike Schmidt…..
PulledaBloom
Frying pan or no frying pan, it won’t make a difference. They should have hid his glove in 2017 and made him DH then. JD at LF is better defensively than Devers at 3B where 3 times as many chances occur.
avenger65
Traynor. The auto correct got me.
avenger65
Absolutely! Schmidt and Pie Trainer. Best third basemen of all time!
Mystery Team
Met’s fans should be seen and not heard from on the topic of bad contracts you guys will always be known as the team that gave Brandon Nimmo $20M a year for 8 years and who knows how stupid they’ll get with Correa. In five or six years you guys will have zero titles and will have six DHs all making over $20M a year and you’ll be complaining about it.
jimthegoat
Bloom haters in shambles!
JoeBrady
The Bloom haters were always in shambles. There were 304 comments on the Casas thread, half of them from the haters, and not a single one of them actually addressed anything in the article.
Clepto_
Most were from Bloom’s mom.
The Natural
Follow your own advice and stay classy Clepto
Salvi
Great insight there Clepto. I think that kind of comment is exactly what hes speaking of. Braindead.
Clepto_
Below average comment, as usual. Points subtracted.
acell10
Don’t forget the one Bloom hater that also hates Devers. I’m sure that no matter what screen name he uses he’ll rip this apart…
PulledaBloom
And rightfully so. $132 MM over pay. What’s to like about it after passing on Mookie, Benny, JD, Bogey and the best players from the 2018 team.
acell10
Of course you would KD17. You’re pinning for guys like Benny who what little power he showed is diminished to Juan Pierre levels and made the all star by default last and JD who hit the toilet pretty hard hard at age 35 with no position other than DH.
Salvi
Id take Devers over Benny or Bogey. No comparison. Only one they shouldve re-signed was Mookie, but they couldnt because they went with extending Sale instead. Decisions have consequences.
avenger65
To be fair, Mookie wouldn’t have stayed in Boston even if they offered a million dollars a year. He just wanted out. And I wish JD had stayed in Boston. He was probably my favorite Sox player the last few years.
miltpappas
Hardly. Half of the remaining roster looks like the Bad News Bears
Pads Fans
Because the Sox signed a DH to a $331 million deal? You are not serious are you?
Hammerin' Hank
And you guys overpaid Bogaerts because no other stars wanted to play there, even when offered more money. It’s a Padre tradition. The original free agent, Catfish Hunter, was offered the most money by the Padres but chose the Yankees instead.
acell10
Not only that the only reason the Padres were able to sign Boegarts was because they offered him 80-100 million more than the next closet team
Pads Fans
What does what any other team have to do with what the Red Sox did? Even if one of them made a stupid decision, it doesn’t make what the Red Sox did a smart decision.
Devers is either an elite DH or an above average but not great 3B because of his putrid defense.
His 3.4 WAR per 650 PA from 2018-2022 points that out clearly. He is not an elite baseball player. He is an elite hitter.
Contrast his numbers to Bogaerts 5.6 WAR per 650 PA over that period.
Or Arenado at 6.3 WAR per 650 PA.
Or Machado at 5.3 WAR per 650 PA.
Those guys are elite. Devers is good. Exactly 1 WAR above league average. He just got paid like he was elite.
jimthegoat
Many Red Sox fans have said on here and other sites that Bloom is trying to run the team like it’s the Rays but it’s not the Rays and the Red Sox can afford to overpay at least a couple of players and they thought that Betts and Bogaerts should have been among those “couple of players.” Still others said it never should have gotten to that point with Bogaerts as Bloom should have extended him last winter. Those people got their wish with Devers. We’ll see how the contract ends up looking down the road.
JoeBrady
The issue with the “Bogaerts AND Devers” philosophy is that one was always destined for 3B. The RS presumably plan on Mayers taking over at SS. This meant either Bogaerts was going to move to 3rd, and Devers was going to leave, Or Bogaerts was going to leave and Devers was going to stay at 3rd.
I doubt it was ever going to be both.
jimthegoat
The point is they spent money. Whether or not they spent it well is a whole nother discussion but so is whether or not your Padres spent it well when they signed Bogaerts.
PulledaBloom
Jimthegoat – I agree that we can’t tell who spent the smart money. One huge difference between the two contracts is the philosophy of the 11 years behind both of them.
San Diego has a high payroll and extended the deal to help with the luxury tax. They significantly lowered the AAV so the missing component is what was there expectation for Bogaerts good years. The $280MM total divided by 6 good years is $46.7MM and that’s far too much for any SS. If they assumed 8 good years then his price would have been $35MM for the eight years. That’s a high side price for now and clearly too high in 5 to 8 years.
Nine years would be $31.1MM which is about what Bogey should have expected as a fair market price. So maybe they added two years to drop the AAV by $6MM per year. The total amount is what they agree on and that sets the bar for whether this is a good deal in total. If Bogey puts up good OPS+ for 9 years he could easily provide value greater than $280MM. That means by 38 he needs to have produced $280MM of value which is easily achieved if he stays healthy and productive. The last two years simply stretched the AAV so he doesn’t have to return anything after 38.
Devers on the other hand got $30.1MM per year for 11 years and that wasn’t an AAV lowering move since he’ll be 36 (closer to 37) when the contract is over. Since Devers is a liability at 3B his offensive OPS+ needs to be discounted by the opportunity cost of a legit 3B playing for Boston instead of Devers. It’s difficult to define the COST of playing Devers at 3B but the team is impacted significantly by the additional dozen errors and the additional two dozen misplays that don’t get recorded as an error. If he moves to DH he is more valuable to the team but that’s not likely to happen so a method for measuring his liability for playing bad defense needs to be quantified and then applied to his OPS+ to get his net value. Devers in six seasons has produced an average OPS+ of 124. That is slightly above league average. Those players typically make far less than $30MM per year so ownership projected off his 2022 numbers when he had protection in the line-up and other all-stars on the roster. The 141 OPS+ if sustained would be worth a $30MM a year salary if it weren’t for his defense. Whether you believe WAR or OPS+ is the best way to value hitting production or total production the bottom line is Devers is unique in that his defense is so negative that it must off set the nice offensive numbers.
So is Bogey at $31.1 for 9 years or Devers at $30.1 for 11 years the better deal. Which will produce net offensive and defensive numbers that will justify these long contracts?
For their career Bogey has an average War of 4.5 and Devers is at 3.6.and Bogey has an average OPS+ 117 (10 yrs) and Devers has 124 (6 years).
It should be fun to monitor the payback on these two contracts. Mookie got 12 years for $365MM but the year one $65MM bonus reduced the annual AAV to $25.6. To determine if he is worth the $365MM one must divide the $365 by 12 and his annual cost is 30.4. Yep, Mookie was too expensive for Boston and signed in LAD 3 years before Bogey and Devers and his annual cost is almost identical to both of the other players. Mookie needs to play until 39 just like Bogey. Here are the key numbers of these 3 players since Mookie was given to LAD.
2020 SHORT SEASON
Betts – OPS+ 147 WAR 3.6
Bogey – OPS+ 128 WAR 1.6
Devers – OPS+ 107 WAR 0.7
2021
Betts – OPS+ 126 WAR 4.2
Bogey – OPS+ 129 WAR 4.9
Devers – OPS+ 134 WAR 3.5
2022
Betts – OPS+ 136 WAR 6.4
Bogey – OPS+ 121 WAR 5.8
Devers – OPS+ 141 WAR 4.4
As you can see these modern metrics show very different results because they are based on a myriad of assumptions which vary dramatically in accuracy.
Going into this contract Devers had the highest OPS+ but the lowest WAR. Which measure best captures his value versus his cost? Opinions vary greatly. Both numbers are filled with faulty assumptions but WAR has far more than OPS+ so I prefer OPS+ as the more valid barometer of performance. Is Devers defense the reason his WAR is so low? If the answer is yes, then maybe WAR should be used.
Note that Bogey’s WAR has been greater than Devers so his $31.1MM per year cost will be covered better than Devers $30.1MM annual cost.
So did SD over pay or did Boston or did both or did neither? Time will tell.
Mookie has already shown his was not an over pay after 3 years but there are nine more years before it’s over.
Deleted Userr
Is that you PF? Another new account?
VonPurpleHayes
Good news. I’m not a Red Sox fans, but I hated seeing all those stars leave. This is better for baseball IMO.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
And with that the Austin Riley Contract looks that much better.
Bostonsports85
Let’s not go compare him too devers sorry devers wayyyyyy more important
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Way more important to what? His team?
That’s a useless non-measurable.
If true, it’s only true because your FO has managed itself into irrelevance stripping the roster down to only a few pieces thereby synthetically adding “importance” to players by default.
CJML
Braves had 4 years of control when Riley signed, big difference.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
True. Though Devers is only one year older and Boston will be paying over $100M more over the same time frame for much less production.
No knock on Devers or Boston. Just saying that seeing deals like this and the Correa deal definitely make the Riley deal look like much more of a steal than it did at the time he was signed.
Zonedeads
One is a very good 3rd baseman and the other is a DH pretending to be a 3rd baseman
CJML
I mean Riley has -18 OAA for his career and Devers -14 and played many more games. I say they are both monster bats that can play acceptable defense.
PulledaBloom
OAA is not a legit stat. It’s a projection. Stats are facts. Fielding percentage is based on actual play not theoretical play. Devers is the worst based on the facts of baseball.
CJML
I mean every major outlet has used it to discuss a players defensive abilities this off-season but I am sure they are all idiots. Stick to the facts ESPN
Salvi
Evaluating Defensive Acuity strictly by Fielding Percentage:
A third baseman with no range to his left or his right, terrible at popups behind him, or in foul territory, cant field a bunt to save his life, is a great Defensive 3B, as long as he cleanly fields balls hit right to him.
Fielding percentage is very limited. You can find flaws in every stat.
avenger65
Eyes, not statistics.
Dumpster Divin Theo
The Ron Cey, Larry Bowa, Derek Jeter theory- great fielding %, no range
PulledaBloom
JimtomgtoGrounds – You can suggest STATS don’t always tell the story but the virtual reality numbers masquerading as stats are not stats since they don’t reflect a specific play made in a MLB game.
Suggesting a person with a 4 foot greater range but fields .935 is better than a 4 foot less range but fields .980 is a gross misuse of facts. Devers is league worst because the binary transaction of fielding the baseball and getting an out is the worst in Boston history at 3B for a career spanning his length. That’s a long and significant trend. In the minors his fielding percentage was roughly the same as in the majors. That is called consistency. He has been terrible at both levels so the obvious conclusion is that Devers is a terrible fielder even if he runs 20 feet to his left to misplay a ball hit to Bogaerts and the score keepers doesn’t give him an error since he ran so far. The pitcher knows Bogey would have thrown out the guy and the fans know that the screwed up modern metrics motivate selfish play by Devers. His range is always improving and his harm to the pitching staff is constantly increasing along with that range factor.
The flaw is in the misuse of averaged data measuring distance not quality of play. The fielding percentage is the foundation of defense. Comparing player range is subjective not objective. All players don’t have the same distance between where they line-up and where the ball goes to. Some years players have balls hit closer to them than others. To compare those ranges without consideration for the spot on the field they start from, the quality of the footing in the game, the wind, the temperature, the type of grass or dirt all contribute to biasing the results. The actual play is the only REAL statistic. The runner was out or safe and the player either made an error or didn’t. The integrity of the score keeper is also a big issue since anyone who has observed the non calls on Devers misplays knows an employee of the Red Sox should not be making error calls on plays since their future with the Red Sox is dependent on them making their stars look better than they are.
Fielding percentage is the only STAT that matters. All other information should be used as supplemental data that fine tunes the base data. In the end, the team should care most about the successful execution of defense by every player not whether they are faster, can jump higher or have a stronger arm than the next player. Those are all considerations after the base fact of whether a player can actually field a ground ball successfully. Devers can not so no amount of speed, jumping ability or arm strength can off set the lack of basic defensive skill.
oot
Suppose that an infielder fields every ball he gets to…he would have a 1.000 fielding percentage. But the balls he doesn’t get to will be base hits, not errors. Other fielders at his position, who have better range, will field some of those balls; they may have lower fielding averages but fewer balls get past them. And that is why fielding average is not a good way to assess fielding prowess.
JoeBrady
why fielding average is not a good way to assess fielding prowess.
==========================
Of course. That’s why no one has judged a fielder, outside maybe 1B, on fielding %. in maybe 50 years. Who has a higher FP, Cal Ripken or Ozzie Smith?
PulledaBloom
oot – nice try but your going to need facts that don’t exist to support your argument.
Nobody knows prior to a ball being hit where it will go. If a player gets everything hit within 10 feet of him and another gets 80% within 10 feet and the rest farther from him. then the 20% of the balls that are hit farther to the one player didn’t exist for the other player so they can’t be compared.
With shifts, weather conditions, field conditions, wind, etc. there is not a fair way to evaluate hypothetical plays. Facts are the plays that actually happen. If a player can’t run as far as another there is only an advantage if a ball is actually hit in that distance. If it’s not then why is the great fielder being penalized for something that didn’t happen?
Facts not theoretical possibilities should be the basis of evaluation because each NEXT ground ball can’t be predicted so you must base your evaluation on what ACTUALLY happens not the theoretical.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – 50 years? hahahaha again you have no clue how recent these bogus metrics are.
Cal Ripken and Ozzie Smith had similar fielding percentages. If you actually knew baseball you’d know that while Cal was slower than Ozzie but he anticipated where the ball was going better than Ozzie based on his knowledge of the pitch and it’s location. Less range off set by smarter player.
Devers is more range and dumber player. He doesn’t have the baseball acumen to know when to cut off a ball hit to the SS and when not to.cut it off.
Congrats JB – Yet another comment that defies facts and shows a lack of knowledge of the game.
JoeBrady
while Cal was slower than Ozzie but he anticipated where the ball was going better than Ozzie
============================
Wrong again. Their respective RF/9 were 5.22 and 4.73. That’s the primary reason why Ozzie got to >2,000 more balls than Ripken did.
And why Ozzie has 13 GG’s and Ripken only 2.
You might be the only one on the entire planet that ever equates Ripken’s fielding with Ozzie’s fielding, so you got that going for you.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – I’m fine with that because I saw them play and bogus contrived numbers won’t change my mind. I witnessed the two players. I always considered Ozzie far over rated. He was better at hand springs I’ll give him that.
You want athleticism and I prefer intelligence. That difference is clear from your responses across all topics. Intelligence is a low priority for you.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Ozzie- more backflips. Cal- more grumpy
Dumpster Divin Theo
Ozzie – Ripken argument. Two grumpy old guys fighting over a bag of turnips at the Food King! Aisle 15!
JoeBrady
Again, if you want to be the only person on the planet that thinks Ripken was a better fielder than Ozzie, be my guest.
oot
Range factor is the ratio of total chances successfully fielded per inning played and the league range factor would be for all fielders at a given position. It won’t remain the same for positions year-by-year because it may be affected by several factors: the size (fair and foul) of parks played in; the range/speed of of nearby players; percentage of outs recorded by strikeouts, among others.
Bill James came up with Range Factor in the early 1980s to improve on Fielding Percentage.
At one time, range was measured in this fashion:
retrosheet.org/location.htm
Pads Fans
Last Season
6.5 WAR/142 OPS+/ 6DRS
vs
4.4 WAR/141 OPS+/-6 DRS
Last 2 seasons
12.6 WAR/138 OPS+/19 DRS
vs
7.9 WAR/137 OPS+/-19 DRS
HMMMMM. What was that you said?
Salvi
No idea who youre comparing Pads. Mike Schmidt and Graig Nettles?
Pads Fans
Riley vs Devers.
JustAGuyNamedHank
Not every team holds a gun to their players’ heads and forces them to sign an ultra team-friendly contract.
HistoryBelongstotheVictorsInArms
Lol. I can see the only negotiating you’ve engaged in was as a spectator during a Breaking Bad binge watch…
roiste
This is a dumb comment, but the Albies contract was legit sketchy. That dude is so ridiculously underpaid one wonders if some weird stuff was going on
roiste
Atlanta has a gift for locking up arb guys well before free agency. No team does it as well as them, and Boston, the Yankees, and others should really take a page out of their book.
This is still a good contract for Devers though
duffys cliff
The best thing to happen to the Red Sox since their last World Series win. Thank you Chaim and the rest of the front office.
FenwayFanatic
My nightmares are finally over
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
I mean as great as the signing is there’s still not much around him. This is more of a signing for the future
stymeedone
And how much they pay him effects how much they can pay those around him. Less!
lamars
Wrong! They had enough money to sign Bogey and Devers. As a Red Sox fan I am glad they didn’t sign Bogey to that contract.
Pads Fans
They did? Then why didn’t they make a legitimate effort to sign Bogaerts?
FenwayFanatic
Amen
Johnny81913
So my Giants aren’t getting him instead of Correa?…
Terry B
Vagiants…..insert laugh imoji
Terry B
Looks like 11 has become the new 7, a lot of regrettable contracts being thrown around, Glad Andrew Friedman has a bit more smarts!
deweybelongsinthehall
Didn’t he ink Mookie in 20 and help set this market?
Terry B
That was a trade, not a free agent signing!!
redsoxu571
So the Dodgers don’t actually have a 12 year contract on their docket? Someone should let Cot’s Baseball Contracts know…
Terry B
Do your homework, Betts wasn’t a free agent, Dodgers traded for him!
lamars
Devers is 26 and will be 37 when his deal ends. Hardly an overspend.
GoogleMe
He has 15 career WAR and has never finished in the top 10 in MVP. I would say it is a bit of an overpay. It is a nice contact for Devers and Fenway is a good place for a hitter like Devers. I don’t know if I would make him the face of the franchise. I just don’t think he is that type player.
Pads Fans
$30 million AAV over 11 years for a DH or a good but not great 3B is an overspend.
Devers has a 3.4 WAR per 650 PA over the past 5 seasons, which is exactly 1 WAR above league average.
Every other guy getting paid $25 million AAV or more for 7+ years is above 5.0 WAR per 650 PA.
That’s a huge difference, more than 30%, in quality of player.
Murray Rothbard
Sorry Johnny but you can still drive up the price on Ohtani and then settle for 1-2 year contract, reclamation projects
solaris602
Oh you didn’t hear? They’re bringing back Panda for one last hurrah. I better not say that too loud and give Zaidi any ideas.
vaderzim
Good job Chaim, you did something right!
Jurassic Carl
Lol turned a world series contender into a minor league roster he did nothing right but destroy a potential dynasty.
vaderzim
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Carl
MafiaBass
Holy crap, I didn’t think they would get it done.
Bostonsports85
Wowwwwwww they finally did something right for once hey lets all give them a for finally doing something and not letting ur player walk he’s a player too build a team around
HalosHeavenJJ
Wow. Huge deal.
This has been a fun off season.
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
If your new owners figure out how to get Ohtani to sign before free agency, next offseason is gonna be a dog lol
HalosHeavenJJ
I sincerely hope the new Mr. Moneybags finds a way to do so.
However, if he doesn’t this year’s trade deadline could be crazy.
Bostonsports85
* clap
05munds
That’s a good start now follow it up with a good trade
Yanks2
Sox don’t really have any trade pieces
soxfan1
All it took was two days after booing John Henry and speculation that he might sell the team going rampant
OKBaseballFan
Bloom saves face (and his job)
YourDreamGM
Bloom had nothing to do with this. 300 million is a ownership decision. Not a team friendly deal. Oh wow great job Bloom. You gave him a huge pile of money and he took it. Amazing work. Lets get you an extension as well.
avenger65
Bloom had nothing to do with this…great job Bloom. Huh?
SteveC
A poor attempt at sarcasm
MLB-1971
Steve – Agreed. The problem with poor sarcasm is that a whole lot of people think you are being serious (and stupid) when you post it….
PulledaBloom
YourDreamGM – Look up the role of Bloom in Boston. He develops proposals to the owners who then vote on them and make the final decision. Bloom is every bit as much responsible for this mistake as the owners. There would be no need for Bloom is owners did his job of finding deals to make. They are the ones responsible for the final approval but they don’t develop the offers, Bloom does along with his team.
AtomsAnts
He Deverserves it!
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
Hey man, glad to see Bloom woke up and accomplished something! Great signing!
Jimmy joe
The Sox will regret this sooner rather than later. Big overpay for a future DH. I’m all for giving big money to a complete player like Betts but Devers is not.
hazekiller
Oh please. It’s not like the Sox have had any successful DH’s or anything.
stymeedone
When they had Ortiz, he got paid less than JDM. Now JDM got paid less than Devers. Guess Boston thinks DH is a hard to fill position.
Hammerin' Hank
Inflation stymeed
lamars
Ortiz was never paid less than JDM.
Pads Fans
I think you meant to say that Ortiz was always paid less than JDM with the Red Sox.
baseball-reference.com/players/o/ortizda01.shtml#b…
baseball-reference.com/players/m/martijd02.shtml#b…
Mattmang23
It’s just money. They have a lot. They needed to stop being cheap. They stopped being cheap.
Rsox
What do you think prime David Ortiz would be worth in todays market? Devers has improved defensively each season and there is no reason to believe that won’t continue
YankeesBleacherCreature
$32.5 AAV?
Pads Fans
He improved? He went from a horrific -13 DRS to a simply terrible -6 DRS. He was still the 2nd or 3rd worst 3B in baseball.
PulledaBloom
Unequivocally the worst 3B in baseball since he came up in 2017 and by far the worst in Boston history. And that was when he was young. Anyone thinking his slow first step, hands of stone and errant arm is going to get better as he moves into his 30s is insane. It’s not going to happen.
Hammerin' Hank
Damn dude you’re obsessed. What did Devers do to you?
Rsox
Still an improvement though
avenger65
Pulledabloom:You shouldn’t speak in absolutes. You don’t know that Dever’s defense, yet you say it’s not going to happen. How do you know that? Unequivocally the worst 3b in bb since he came up in 2017. Do you have any proof of that? Have you seen every game he’s played?. If not, you aren’t qualified to make that statement.
PulledaBloom
Avenger65 – I’ll start with the definition of insanity. Seeing the same situation and expecting a different result.
Devers was bad at fielding dating back to his days in the Dominican Baseball Academy. He was bad when he joined the Red Sox and his monumentally bad defense ranged from sub .900 to roughly 6 points below league average. He’s never been league average and in 8 years counting the minors he’s average 30 points below league average. He had a good year in the minors and it was followed up by his worst year in the minors. I have been told he’s improving since he arrived in Boston and yet his .930s fielding percentage has barely waiver when observed in 2 year increments. What does that mean? If he’s good in 2019 he will be bad in 2020. If he’s good in 2022 then he’ll be bad in 2023. He’s established a pattern dating back to his Rookie Ball days. The entire time he’s been well below league average which hurts the pitching staff in multiple ways. There are more stressful innings, there are more pitches, there are higher ERAs and higher WHIPs and players get paid on those stats. He should have been moved to DH in the minors after 3 years of failing on defense. He should have been moved to DH in 2019 after hitting .240 and putting up a fielding percentage of .926 (32 points below league average).
Avenger65 – YES I have proof of all my statements. He has 110 errors since he arrived. No other player is close to that at 3B since then.
Devers is currently 212th on the all-time list of errors by a 3B. Arenado is 202nd with 114. That’s four more and he has played 4 more years!!
Other players with more errors in less seasons include:
Bill Boyd had 110 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Pete Gilbert had 140 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Harry Raymond had 147 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Bill Alvord had 156 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Joe Farrell had 167 in four seasons during the late 1800s
Billy Lauder had 190 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Bill Hague had 200 in five seasons during the late 1800s
Warren White had 210 in six seasons (same as Devers) in the late 1800s
There are no modern era players close to the error rate of Devers except during short segments. Hobson’s fielding percentage for 3 years was lower than Devers but he got moved for being bad whereas Devers didn’t.
Pinky Higgins who is 21st on the list played in Boston roughly 2 1/2 seasons in the 1930s and 1940s. He made 9 errors in 59 games in 1946 and he made 58 errors in 1937 and 1938. Short sample but he was roughly at Devers skill level on defense.. His career fielding percentage is slightly below Devers’ but was equal to it a year ago. Higgins butchered 3B for 14 years with Philadelphia Athletics, the Red Sox and the Tigers. He is a fair comp to Devers. He finished with 356 errors in 14 seasons.spanning 1930 to 1946.
Yes, he is 21st worst in history and comparable to Devers in his prime!!
These are absolutes and they are facts. I’m not exaggerating how bad Devers has been. It’s all documented in Baseball Reference and the Baseball Almanac.
I am qualified to make the statements I make because they are directly linked to facts that I continuously document on this site.
JoeBrady
He’s not complete, and will eventually DH. But he could be one of the best hitters in the league for 6 years before he starts declining.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Lets take your best case scenario that he could be one of the best hitters in baseball for the next 6 years.
As of today after 6 years Devers OPS+ is 124. That puts him below:
Mookie (134 after 9 years)
JD (132 after 12 years)
And above
Bogaerts (117 after 10 years)
Best players in baseball are:
Trout (176 after12 years)
Judge (163 after 7 years)
Goldschmidt (145 after 12 years)
Pujols (145 after 22 years)
Votto (145 after 15 years)
Cabrera (142 after 20 years)
Harper (142 after 11 years)
Stanton (141 after 13 years)
Freeman (140 after 13 years)
Bregman (137 after 7 years)
Abreu (134 after 9 years) Same as Mookie
Bryant (132 after 8 years)
Springer (132 after 9 years)
Matt Olsen (131 after 7 years)
So from year 7 to 12 you believe Devers will outperform all these guys and finish as one of the top hitters after not doing that his first 6 years? Remember, this list doesn’t include the less experienced guys like Tatis, Acuna, J Ramirez, Ohtani, Tucker, Alonso, Guerrero Jr., Bichette, Machado, Alvarez, Altuve, Riley and J Rodriguez!!!
So you project Devers to get better as he gets older despite having less hitters protecting him in the future?
That certainly defies normal logic but like anything “it could happen!” hahaha
JoeBrady
So you project Devers to get better as he gets older despite having less hitters protecting him in the future?
==============================
I’ve explained player progression and decline to you previously. You’re really better off reading the FG article. It is pretty insightful.
IRT lineup protection, studies suggest it mostly doesn’t exist. And to the extent that it does exist, it is largely situational. It is very rare to see an IBB early in the game.
And in regard to Devers specifically, having JT or JD behind him will make no difference,
But more importantly, it is the guys in front of the batter that are more important than the batter behind him.
PulledaBloom
JoeBrady – Fundamentals of baseball seem to be missing from your mind.
If Babe Ruth is hitting behind Devers his runs scored will be higher. That will raise his bogus WAR number. If Ichiro is batting before Devers his RBIS will go up and his bogus WAR will rise.
Brilliant study hahaha Must have been done by a metrics guy!!! No understanding of the actual game.
Why are you even talking about IBB? I said NOTHING about IBB changing Devers future performance. Productivity is measured by Runs and RBIs which are dependent on the players batting around the individual. No JD, no Bogey, no Mookie, no Schwarber, no Renfroe. All the guys that created the high productivity of Devers are gone. He’s going to need someone to step up and drive in runs and he’s going to need guys like Kike to get on base if he leads off or maybe they’ll bat Yoshida first if he can hit MLB pitching. Either way, his productivity is about to take a massive nosedive.
I’d stop reading the crap articles you keep referencing. They are clueless which makes you seem clueless.
baseballguru
CARITA! YES! “If you build around him they will come!”
THANK YOU! Redsox, John Henry, Sam, Chaim etc…NOW LET’S finish this rebuild and take 6 of the rings in those 11 years!
AverageCommenter
And the Red Sox front office saves their butts
MafiaBass
I think he will earn his contract. However, this signing isn’t about Devers. It’s about the front office actually committing. It’s about winning back the fan base. In that respect, they couldn’t have over paid.
Yanks2
They let Bogaerts walk
Eatdust666
They definitely needed to get this done, because they had absolutely no desire to have yet another Betts and Bogaerts situation, knowing how badly they would be humiliated on Social Media and not just by their own fans.
FenwayFanatic
*Relaxes*
hazekiller
Tears of joy.
The Human Toilet
Welp! As a Cubs fan, the dream of Devers playing 3b at Wrigley just died. DAMN!
Good deal for both sides though.
olmtiant
Come on didn’t we give you enough of our old players/ gm to win in 16??? Our turn again!!!
solaris602
Well, there isn’t a no trade clause built in, so don’t give up hope.
Mattmang23
Holy God, they did it.
Rsox
Finally Bloom does something right
SGva
Hallelujah! I happy and shocked that they got it done!
fitted54
I guess John Henry really did hear the boos at the Bruins game
Fever Pitch Guy
fitted – Trust me, he most certainly did. Henry and Bloom have been roasted everywhere, real Sox fans were heard loud and clear!
kingken67
I love the delusions of grandeur by Sox fans thinking they are responsible for this. The whining in the fan base had nothing to do with this.
JoeBrady
I love the delusions of grandeur by Sox fans thinking they are responsible for this.
=======================
Wait! Are you saying that Bloom doesn’t read MLB-R to see what our fans are recommending?
kingken67
15-16 HRs and 70-something RBI each isn’t all that hard to replace.
PulledaBloom
Fever – It’s well deserved and this deal makes me want to raise the volume on the boos considering Mookie is in LA and Bogey in SD and Benny is in Chicago and JD is in LA with Mookie.
I won’t be surprised if JD outhits Devers in 2023. Nobody protecting him and JD surrounded by all-stars. Great signing by LA, just like the Mookie deal.
Fever Pitch Guy
Pulled – I wish JD all the best and hope he does have a rebound season, but I would never bet against Devers. In terms of OPS it could be close though.
Dorothy_Mantooth
Let’s just hope Devers stays committed to staying in shape and playing 3rd Base for as long as he can. I have seen defensive improvement from him over the years (save for the occasional lack of concentration) so he should be good at 3B for another 5-6 years so long as he doesn’t get too heavy.
Pads Fans
BWAHAHAHAHA He was the 2nd worst 3B in baseball the last 2 years and his improvement was from a -13 to a -6 DRS.
He won’t play 3B for more than a couple years.
Hammerin' Hank
There will always be jobs and big money for players who can HIT. It’s a much rarer skill than fielding. There are plenty of slick fielders in the minors right now who will never come close to a big league roster. Great hitters on the other hand will always get to the show and become stars.
BaseballisLife
Hank, you are absolutely correct. Its called being a DH.
Pads Fans
Guys that can hit but can’t play defense are called a DH. That is what Devers will be in a year or two.
bpskelly
Not a Sox fan, but glad they finally acknowledge having a cornerstone player makes some sense. They were not going to find that guy on the open market at this point.
olmtiant
Hope they have enough left to lock up my man Brasier…… ok now everyone put the boxes of tea down……
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
Comments like this make me miss the downvote option lol
(Yes I know it’s a joke, I’m just talking about the consequences of making me cringe at the thought!)
olmtiant
Thanks Pedro…. Any publicity is still publicity…. Lol !!!
LosPobres1904
Was hoping we would get him
Pads Fans
Padres do need a long term solution at DH. Not sure paying $30 million for one is a good idea.
Hammerin' Hank
So was Pads Fans
Rsox
The Sox have their next franchise face for the next decade+. Huge deal for both team and player as now Devers, Cora, Bloom, or anyone else won’t have to answer questions about Devers contract all spring/season and the team won’t have to deal with the speculation of whether or not Raffy will be traded by the trade deadline if the team struggles.
leftykoufax
Now he can buy his own island!
Good signing for the RS, he is as solid as they come.
HALfromVA
Good signing for the IRS, as well.
TrillionaireTeamOperator
Does this actually make it 12 years/$348M total?
Actually a really good deal for Devers at his age and his level of play in today’s market. Fair deal. Consistent player.
acell10
I thought it might be the other way around. The 11th year was covering the one year deal he just signed and they tacked on the other 10 and 314 on top of it
TrillionaireTeamOperator
Looks like that detail isn’t clear yet, but whether it’s 11 or 12 years, at his age and that AAV it’s a very good deal.
acell10
Agreed. I’d much rather give 11 years to a 26 year old player vs someone over 30.