We know this much for certain: a top Red Sox exec recently visited Rafael Devers in the Dominican Republic. But was the trip just a birthday check-in or the start of fruitful contract negotiations between the Red Sox and their star third baseman?
It depends on who’s relaying the story.
Dominican MLB Insider Yancen Pujols, who was the first to report Wander Franco’s surprise extension last year with the Rays, tweeted Tuesday that Boston has “begun the negotiation process” with Devers. “A substantially improved offer was made versus the previous one in spring training,” wrote Pujols.
In Spring Training, the Red Sox reportedly offered Devers an extension in the neighborhood of eight years, $168 million — well below his market value.
Another Dominican reporter, Héctor Gómez, said the Red Sox are expected to “nearly double” their previous offer.
The Globe’s Alex Speier added Tuesday that Red Sox assistant general manger Eddie Romero was the person who visited Devers, but his sojourn was nothing more than “a regular offseason check-in.”
The truth is likely just a matter of semantics. We know that Romero recently saw Devers in-person. Do you think contract discussions never came up?
It would be kind of ridiculous if the Red Sox’ assistant GM visited their best player who’s two years away from free agency, and didn’t mention anything about a new deal.
Reporters based in the Dominican are conceivably close with Devers and presenting his side. It works in Devers’ favor for word to leak out the Red Sox are presenting him with a new and better offer. It puts pressure on the team to do exactly that.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox may want to downplay those discussions, because they want room to operate. A team source told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey they would “love to find a path to an extension” with Devers — echoing what Chaim Bloom has said publicly.
Let the dance begin.
