The Never Weres

Eleven years is a long time. Think about it, eleven years ago was 2012. What were you doing in 2012? Maybe you just got out of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, got in your car and plugged in your iPod touch clicked on “We Found Love” by Rihanna and went home. That was January 2012 in a nutshell. A lot can change. In 2023 one of the most anticipated movies of the summer is…Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. OK fine, Tom Cruise doesn’t change but everyone else does. The third baseman (maybe eventual DH) of the Red Sox also won’t change.

The Red Sox finally paid a superstar, extending Rafael Devers for 11 years at a comfortable $331 million (first reported by Bob Nightengale). Now all Red Sox fans can breath a sigh of relief as that nightmare was averted. In an off-season where one of the franchise staples left, the Red Sox have identified who they will build around. Signing Devers was a no-brainer and the only thing they could have done to keep from losing much of the fan base.

Devers will now sit in the 2 or 3 hole for the next decade while the front office hopefully builds a team around him that can eventually compete. Here are his stats for every full season he has played (thanks Baseball-Reference):

He is going into his age 26 season and his average slash line is .283/.342/.512 with 44 doubles and 33 home runs. According to FanGraphs since his break out season in 2019, Devers ranks 9th in MLB in home runs, 3rd in RBI, 1st in 2Bs, has the 14th best batting average, 10th in slugging percentage, and is 15th in fWAR. I will not mention numbers 3 and 11 on the fWar list. I won’t do it. I won’t. I’m not going to. Stop, I’m not doing it. It’s Mookie and Xander. Dammit.

So the cornerstone is locked down. Great! We are excited about that over here in Never Weres land. You throw in Triston Casas, Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck you got a nice little nucleus started. *You have to read that like Carl Weathers from Arrested Development.*

If Masataka Yoshida can produce like the front office expects him to, Alex Verdugo builds on his quietly awesome second half last season (.304/.356/.447) maybe adding a little power and you get something from Trevor Story, this team might be not so terrible to watch.

The key to building a winning roster was Devers. If he had left the team would be in a waste land. The MVP caliber talent on the roster starts and ends with Devers. I am excited to watch Casas play a whole season. I am intrigued by Yoshida. There are other players I like and some that I just don’t get the love affair for. But no team wins a World Series without a stud in the center of their lineup. The Red Sox thankfully didn’t let Devers walk. No they can work on filling the holes of the MVP caliber players that did walk.

(Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images)