This post was originally published on December 19, 2022.
I did a writeup of Manny Machado following reports of him hitting Free Agency after the 2023 season, and it looks like I get to do one for Rafael Devers. Machado is easily a top 5 Third Baseman, and Devers is easily up there in the top 5 overall in baseball at the position as well.
Devers came up for a brief stint of 58 Games in 2017, at 20 years old. Dave Dombrowski had seen enough of the young man, having hit .311 with 20HR and 60RBI in the Minors that year. Devers was a top ten prospect in Baseball at the time, so Boston decided to eat Pablo Sandovals contract, and release him.
In those 58 Games, Devers hit .285 with 10HR and 30RBI for the big club, showing why he was their top offensive prospect. On the glove side, he did struggle making 14 Errors in just over 500 Innings played. He would make some strides in that department, repeating the 14 Errors, but in over 1000 Innings played in 2018.
Like Machado, Devers has been an All Star in 2021 and 2022. Unlike Machado, he has been lacking in defense when we look at Statcast. Machado has a career total of 18 OAA, while Devers has a career total of -14 OAA with only one season where he had a positive OAA and one season of an OAA of ‘0’ (he was league average at Third defensively). His age and his bat put him well above Machado in terms of cash value, although his durability doesn’t quite match Manny. His breakout seasons of massive extra-base power in ’21 and ’22 will no doubtedly help garner a contract upwards of 10-12 years and $350M going into his age 27 season.
Offensive Rankings for Devers from 2017 among 3B:
- Average – Tied for 7th
- Slugging Percentage – 4th
- Homeruns – Tied for 5th
- Doubles – 4th
- Hits – 5th
- RBI – 6th
- fWAR – 9th
