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We’ve been waiting months for it to happen, but the Red Sox are finally calling upon their top prospect to help the major-league team. Rafael Devers will be promoted from Triple-A Pawtucket for the series in Seattle.
It's Rafael Devers time. Red Sox bringing him up to play third base.
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) July 23, 2017
The last couple of months have been filled with speculation about how the Red Sox will solve their issues at the hot corner. Boston has gotten some of the worst play of any team at third base this year, but based on their quotes all summer it seemed as if they’d seek help from outside the organization to fill the hole and allow Devers to take his time with his development. Whether it was because they missed out on Todd Frazier or they are just really impressed with how Devers has adjusted to Triple-A, they’ve changed their mind. The top prospect in the organization will join the team this week and is expected to make his first career start on Tuesday.
Devers, in his age-20 season, has really never stopped hitting since he was signed by the team as an international amateur free agent back in July of 2013. He spent most of this season in Double-A Portland and hit .300/.369/.575 at the level. One of the top prospects in all of baseball, Devers was promoted to Triple-A earlier this month and coming into today he was hitting .355/.412/.581 in 34 plate appearances. He added three more hits in four at bats on Sunday.
One would assume this takes the Red Sox out of the third base trade market, as they are planning to go with a Devers/Deven Marrero platoon at the hot corner. It is possible they will still look for a different right-handed compliment. It also remains to be seen what this means for Brock Holt, Josh Rutledge and countless others. We’ll have much more on this news in the coming days, but for now we celebrate. It’s finally Devers time.