Yankees-Rafael Devers trade speculation reaches ESPN after fans lobbied at deadline

A sizable contingent of New York Yankees fans, egged on by CC Sabathia, wanted the club to make a play for former nemesis Rafael Devers at the 2026 trade deadline. At the time, there was some logic in taking on the former Boston Red Sox's slugger's contract as a sort of salary dump.

Devers' hefty contract, combined with a down year compared to his career norms in terms of production, made it seem as if acquiring him might be relatively affordable as long as the Yankees absorbed his remaining money, meaning they wouldn't have to pay up via prospect capital.

Now, there are some folks, chiefly Buster Olney and Paul Hembekides, who are making the case that New York would be the perfect landing spot for the San Francisco Giants to unload Devers this coming offseason. They provided some extremely compelling reasoning.

"[Devers] would be a great fit next to George Lombard Jr., and I'll tell you why, man. Mine is a nonstandard opinion. I think he can fake it at third base. But when you have a superhero playing shortstop, which I believe Lombard will be, you don't need a Gold Glover playing third base for you. And I do believe the Yankees could coach Devers up to such an extent," Hembekides said.

Devers hasn't played third base at all this year, but this point is an interesting one. Lombard Jr. has had some growing pains at shortstop, but his defensive potential is insane. We saw it when he first came up, when he posted a whopping eight defensive runs saved over his first 100 big league innings. He is currently sitting with nine defensive runs saved over 273 1/3 innings, even with the miscues factored in.

Putting Devers at the hot corner solves two major issues. For the roster, New York currently has an offensive black hole at third base, a problem that is especially prominent against lefties, as Amed Roario has disappointed. It also gets rid of the obvious roadblock that is the presence of Ben Rice, Luis Garcia Jr., and maybe Giancarlo Stanton clogging up the first base and DH rotation.

Yankees can take advantage of the looming MLB lockout by adding Rafael Devers' contract early

First, Devers' bat has returned to being a legitimate force. When this conversation was going on near the trade deadline, there was some projection that he would need to bounce back to be worth it. That has happened in reality.

Over the first half, Devers hit .249/.319/.479, but over the second half, he's upped his game to a .275/.376/.611 with 18 of his 37 homers coming across this 52-game stretch. That's the kind of impact bat worth taking on salary for.

Now, there are two things that the Yankees can do in order to mitigate some of the financial burden. The 29-year-old is owed $199.5 million over the next seven years, which works out to $28.5 million per season. New York can cut ties with Stanton and eat just $15 million, thanks to the conditions of the trade with the Marlins that have Miami covering the $10 million buyout for his 2028 option.

That will help offset some of the cost for next season, but the real advantage comes from the timing of when a deal would happen during the offseason. The common assumption is that whenever the expected lockout ends and a new CBA is enacted, any contracts on a team's books prior to when this current agreement ends on Dec. 1 will be exempt from a potential salary cap or other restrictions that may be put in place.

So, if the Yankees get aggressive and trade for Devers in November, they'll get the benefit of adding another slugger in his prime to maximize the championship window with Aaron Judge, while suffering no ill effects from what is expected to be a more restrictive spending environment moving forward. The Yankees need another slugging star to anchor and insulate the lineup, and Devers makes perfect sense.

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