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Red Sox are finalizing 11-year, $331million deal to keep Rafael Devers after losing Xander Bogaerts

Jan. 5, 2023
Red Sox are finalizing 11-year, $331million deal to keep Rafael Devers after losing Xander Bogaerts

All-Star Rafael Devers has agreed to an 11-year contract worth $331 million to stay with the Boston Red Sox, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the deal.

At $331m, Devers would have the 11th biggest contract in all of sports and the sixth richest deal in all of baseball.

Locking up Devers, a two-time All-Star third baseman, was an important move for the Red Sox and their uneasy fans after All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, slugger J.D. Martinez and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi departed in free agency.

The 26-year-old Devers reached the new deal a day after he and the team agreed to a one-year, $17.5 million contract to avoid arbitration in his final season under club control.

He joined the Red Sox back in 2017 and won the World Series with the team in 2018 in six games over the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Devers' 11-year deal is the longest commitment this offseason by the Red Sox and Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, supplanting the five-year, $90 million contract signed by Japanese star Masataka Yoshida.

Devers was the AL's starting All-Star third baseman each of the past two years. In 141 games last season, he batted .295 with 42 doubles, 27 home runs and 88 RBIs.

The Red Sox are trying to bounce back from a 2022 season in which they finished 78-84, last in the ultra-competitive AL East. A year earlier, they won 92 games and reached the ALCS.

This signing is a step in the right direction for Bloom, who had alienated himself amongst fans in Boston after losing or trading away multiple key franchise pieces - including All-Star Mookie Betts.


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