It is time to trade Rafael Devers?

No, for one very simple reason. The key words in there is that you're wasting A YEAR of Devers' prime. Even if this is a complete bridge year, he will enter next season at 28, roughly the midpoint of what people peg as an athlete's "prime", and should be more than capable of providing value for a few years following that (at the very least on offense).

I think the better question is how long he lasts at third. My crazy/stupid idea that I had for a little bit this offseason was pursuing Matt Chapman and just biting the bullet with Casas as a long-term DH, which I talked myself out of.

But again, no I would not be looking to trade Devers unless someone with a time machine came back from 2027 with assurances that all of Mayer, Anthony, and Teel were stars or something.

Sure, let’s not get any really good players and trade away one of the few we have. What could possibly go wrong?

The 10 year extension he signed 1 year ago hasn't even kicked in yet. I hope this org is not so capricious as to completely change course on a 10 year deal after only 1 season, especially when that 1 season went exactly as every projection system said it would go.

The Red Sox didn't screw up by signing Devers, they screwed up by not going one step further and pairing him with at least one other stud.

The time to trade him - if that's a thing - was two years ago when a team could've gotten two years of Devers at relatively low cost and the Sox could've gotten a 1/2 starter with the same or more control.

I'm for it. He's my least favorite good player in quite some time (and he didn't even insult a legend on the team plane or disavow the shape of the earth).

There's an excellent FA third baseman looking for a job, I hear?

Trade one, sign the other. Let's go.

Yeah, even as somebody who is relatively low on Devers and thinks he's overrated (for now he's just a good player who gets talked about like he's a great one) it's hard to see how trading him now makes sense. It would be a PR disaster, it would eliminate any chance of competing this year, and his contract is big enough that you probably don't get all that much value for him anyway. You just have to hope he takes that step forward we've been waiting for.

Hardly. The heart wants what the heart wants! 

I can see both sides of the argument. As many have noted it, it would be a PR disaster, particularly for the meager return the Red Sox would likely get. Also, the Red Sox are low on impact MLB talent. For all his deficiencies, Devers is a very good player and has a lot of impact value. Basic logic says to keep those types of players.

In the other hand, I look at the current state of the team and contract as a whole. If the Red Sox don’t plan on truly competing beyond being at the periphery of the wild card race for the next few years while they wait for the “big three” to assert themselves and become impact major leaguers, you are unlikely to be maximizing the best years of the contract. Come 2027, he will be in his age 30 season with 7/211 left on his deal. Those last 7 years do not strike me as more likely than not to be positive value. If you don’t think you can utilize the value Devers provides prior to then in putting together a real contender, I get the idea of wanting to trade him.

Even as someone who is not in love with Devers as a core piece and was open to the idea of trading him prior to his extension, I don’t know how the Sox would even be able to navigate a potential trade. I also don’t love the idea of losing a good player for basically nothing (again), so I lean towards not trading him.

I get the thought exercise, but I'd say a more likely (and better?) scenario would be to trade Casas for a kirby or someone like that and move Devers to 1st. I wouldn't do THAT either, but I'd think that would be more likely.

After seeing the nose dive of this franchise since trading Mookie, I agree 100 percent. If this was the plan, they would have had to sign Chapman and another power bat to make this make sense. That being said if next year Blaze takes a step forward or another 3B candidate emerges and Devers brings you in a haul I could be interested. Also who needs a third baseman/DH that would have major league ready prospect that we would want now?

It would have to be a giant step forward for Blaze because from what I read he has trouble catching up to good heat and playing 3b is pretty much out of the question for him. I certainly wouldn't push Devers out of the way for him.