By the time he retires, third baseman Rafael Devers could enter a sacred place in Boston Red Sox history.
The All-Star and the team are finalizing an 11-year extension for him to stay in Boston.
The deal is worth a whopping $331 million.
If he remains healthy and is not traded, he will be one of the longest-tenured Red Sox in history.
That would be a cool achievement.
Red Sox insider Alex Speier explains the situation.
“If finalized, and if Devers plays out the entirety of the deal, he’ll have spent 20 years in the Red Sox organization by the time of its completion, while becoming the 5th Red Sox ever (joining Yaz, Williams, Evans, Wakefield) to play 17 big league seasons for the Sox,” he tweeted.
If finalized, and if Devers plays out the entirety of the deal, he'll have spent 20 years in the Red Sox organization by the time of its completion, while becoming the 5th Red Sox ever (joining Yaz, Williams, Evans, Wakefield) to play 17 big league seasons for the Sox. https://t.co/YTtdncNTL1
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) January 5, 2023
These times, in which players opt out of deals almost at will and teams easily cut the players they don’t have a use for, seeing one-club players is becoming rare.
Devers, who made his MLB debut with Boston in 2017, has a chance to retire as a Red Sox legend.
So far, he has the performance: he is a career .283/.342/.512 hitter with a .854 OPS, and is capable of hitting 30 homers per season while also approaching 40 doubles.
He is not a batting average liability and actually runs some great contact rates for a slugger.
He is also a known postseason performer and seemingly always does well against the New York Yankees, Boston’s biggest rival.
He is also young, at 26 years old.
Devers is on his way to becoming a hero in Massachusetts.
NEXT: The Red Sox Chose Rafael Devers As Their Foundational Star