The inevitable contract questions emerged during Rafael Devers' first interview of the 2021 season.
Considering this is a player who has two more years of control, who can legitimately be lumped in which some of the best young stars in the major leagues, such a conversation makes sense. Even with the player and the team downplaying the dynamic, it's not going away.
"Right now I’m just focused on getting ready for the season," Devers said. "Obviously, my reps will handle that, and when the time is right, we’ll discuss it further. But right now, I’m just focused on what I’m doing here."
Two years ago we had the Alex Bregman comp, one which fit Devers perfectly. The Sox third baseman had almost the exact same numbers and service time at the time his Houston counterpart agreed to his five-year, $100 million extension.
Now, just to push the discussion along a bit, we have Fernando Tatis -- he of 143 major league games -- agreeing to his 14-year, $340 million deal.
"I know the type of talent that I have," Devers said. "Obviously, if people don’t want to consider me in that group, that’s for them to discuss, but me, I know what I can do in this game and I know what I’ve done, and I can only focus on that because obviously I know that the defense is a thing but at the same time, I’m always out there working and improving my game. I know where I belong and I know what I feel about myself and I feel like that’s the most important part."
Devers isn't in the same category as Tatis.
For starters, at the time the Sox slugger hit 629 plate appearances (where Tatis currently sits) he had hit .258 with a .750 OPS with 24 homers. The San Diego shortstop is at .301/.956/39, with elite defense at the diamond's most important position.
That's not the point.
What shouldn't be dismissed is the importance of keeping Devers around as a key piece of Chaim Bloom's foundation. Like the Padres, the Red Sox can't slow-play this.
The obvious example for this franchise when it comes to missing the extension boat is when they sent the embarrassing off Jon Lester's way heading into his final season, derailing any negotiations right up until he was dealt to Oakland.
Another? Try Mookie Betts.
The Red Sox will tell you they tried to lock up Betts early on in his contract clock. They did, and it wasn't Lester-level.
"That was a really emotional time because I was like, ‘Mom, we’ve never seen this amount of money.’ She was like, ‘OK, cool. It’s a lot of money. I think we know it’s a lot of money. So let’s focus on the facts. Let’s focus on what is real and we took the emotions out of it.' The first one was definitely the hardest," Betts told WEEI.com. "At the time we had never seen anything like that."
But in hindsight, they weren't aggressive enough.
Betts didn't line with Tatis after his first 629 plate appearances, hitting .272 with a .771 OPS and 15 homers. Look familiar? That's basically what Devers sat at during the same stretch.
(Right now, Devers career totals are .279 batting average, .830 OPS and 74 homers through 1,680 plate appearances. After the same number of trips to the plate Betts was at .304/.854/56. And, of course, the biggest difference-maker was Betts' defensive acumen compare to Devers' struggles.)
While we're talking about different kinds of players, with somewhat different results, the constant theme is these are the type of guys you want to build around.
In this day and age where teams are making more financial decisions based on projections more than past performance, Devers' continued improvement/production would be a good bet.
Simply put, as was the case with Betts, there aren't going to be a lot of players like Devers available in the years to come. If you have one, don't hold back when it comes to putting your absolute best foot forward.
"I feel great," the 24-year-old Devers said. "Obviously I know, where I stack up in terms of, I feel like I have the talent to be amongst that group of young players. I’m actually very happy for Tatis to be able to get that type of contract, but there’s a lot of Latin guys, lot of American guys that are young and having success in this game, and I feel like I’m right there with them as well because I’ve had good numbers and I just have to continue to produce what I can do and just control what I can control.”
