Thin market pushes Sox to promote top prospect

THE TRADE market for a third baseman was unappetizing. The need at the hot corner, in specific, and for a struggling offense, in general, lingered. The expectations to win the AL East remained as strong as ever.

So after weeks — really months — of insisting they wanted to avoid injecting Rafael Devers as a key element in the midst of a postseason chase, the Red Sox pivoted and called up who is now, at age 20, the youngest player in the majors.

Call it inspiration or desperation, or some combo of both. But the Red Sox are now going to see if the player ranked as the majors’ sixth-best prospect on Baseball America’s midseason top-100 list can handle major league responsibilities (particularly in the field), Boston and a pennant race.

No team has a worse OPS (.600) from third base than Boston. The Red Sox cut Pablo Sandoval despite owing him roughly $49 million, and players such as Brock Holt, Tzu-Wei Lin and Deven Marrero could not provide strong enough cover.

Boston was tied to Todd Frazier before he was dealt to the Yankees. Mike Moustakas never came on the market because the Royals fought back into playoff contention. Others such as San Francisco’s Eduardo Nunez, Miami’s Martin Prado and even the Mets’ Asdrubal Cabrera were either not attractive enough or Boston did not like the price in prospects or dollars.

So the Red Sox turned to Devers, who was born on the day of the fifth game of the 1996 World Series — when Andy Pettitte outdueled John Smoltz in a 1-0 Yankees win over the Braves. The elevation to The Show comes less than two weeks after promoting the righty hitter to Triple-A. He hit .400 in nine games for Pawtucket with two homers. But the bigger concern with Devers is whether his glove is up to this challenge.

“Devers is a talented player who has continued to perform well at Triple-A, even though it has been for a short period,” Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski wrote in a text. “We wanted to see how he would handle the promotion to Triple-A, not only on the field, but mentally. He has handled it well in both scenarios.”