Rafael Devers suffers stress fracture in foot

There's bad news out of the Fall Instructional League, as SoxProspects' Ian Cundall is reporting that Rafael Devers is in a cast and on crutches, having suffered a turned ankle and stress fracture in his right foot.

Remember how the season ended a week ago and was supposed to take all the badness that was 2014 with it? Remember the relief? Well, the calendar hasn't flipped yet, and this awful year that has been is reminding us that it's not quite over yet.

While the major league team is hardly going to be impacted by an injury to a 17-year-old who hasn't played above the Gulf Coast League, Devers has quickly emerged as one of the most exciting prospects in a still well-stocked Red Sox farm system. The young third baseman hit a combined .322/.404/.506 in 302 plate appearances between the DSL and GCL in his rookie season, producing seven homers despite his young age. There are perhaps no other players in the system with his sheer offensive upside.

The good news, as Cundall reports, is that the Red Sox expect Devers to be all healed up by November, which would leave him looking at a perfectly normal offseason in terms of preparation for 2015. Foot injuries will always be concerning, particularly when the bone is involved. Thankfully, if Devers had to suffer a fracture, there's no better time than October, when there's zero rush to get him off those crutches and onto his feet. There's no real impetus pushing either the player or organization to take things too fast and risk having this linger.

Still, as the first real Red Sox news to hit this month, it's a rough way to start October.