For years now, the Boston Red Sox have had superstar Rafael Devers lined up as their everyday third baseman. While he remains one of the very best offensive players at the position in the league, he’s been one of the worst defenders since the moment he made his debut.
To this point, every single one of Devers’ 942 starts in the infield have come at third base. However, Sean McAdam of MassLive recently reported that the Red Sox have discussed moving Devers across the diamond to first base or making him their permanent designated hitter.
In this scenario, Devers would move off of third base and the door would be open for a potential trade with the St. Louis Cardinals for Nolan Arenado, who’s on the trade block and is one of the best hitters and defenders at third base in the past decade.
Getting Devers off of third base is going to be a roadblock, as his agent only just recently told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier that Devers “has no plans” to move off of third base. However, a look at the numbers will quickly show you why he needs to reconsider that stance.
Rafael Devers move off of third base could open the door for major trade
Here’s a look at where Devers has finished in outs above average (OAA) and arm strength in the past few years, per Baseball Savant:
| OAA (Percentile) | Arm Strength | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 8 | 48 |
| 2023 | 4 | 46 |
| 2022 | 25 | 51 |
| 2021 | 1 | 50 |
| 2020 | 6 | 44 |
Devers doesn’t have strong routes and he also doesn’t have much of a throwing arm either, which is the bare minimum of what is needed to be a competent third baseman. Throws across the diamond require a strong arm, but Devers has never had much of a cannon over at third.
Devers’ value is almost 100 percent in his bat, at this point. The eight-year veteran is coming off of a campaign in which he hit 28 home runs with 83 RBI, a .871 OPS and 139 OPS+ through 138 games. He made the third All-Star Game of his career along the way and looked like one of the best hitters in the AL once again.
Arenado’s arm metrics have fallen off a bit over the years as well, but he continues to rate as one of the best third basemen by OAA in the game. The 10-time Gold Glove winner is coming off of yet another season in which he ranked in the 95th percentile in OAA.
Arenado and his gigantic contract may look scary on the surface, but he remains an above-average offensive contributor, which pairs nicely with his slick glove. In 2024, he finished with a 101 OPS+ that puts him just one percent above league-average, but he hit 16 home runs and drove in 71 runs along the way. Having a corner duo of him and Devers would be electric.
