Dave Dombrowski Reveals Red Sox Nearly Traded Rafael Devers for Chris Sale

It's taken a little longer than everyone expected, but Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers has now become the superstar everyone believed he'd be when he was promoted.

In 120 games this year, Devers is slashing an incredible .327/.375/.580 with 25 home runs and a league-leading 94 RBI. Interestingly enough, though, he might be doing all this business for a different team if a blockbuster deal had gone a different way.

Back in 2016, Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski made one of the biggest trades of his career, acquiring left-handed ace Chris Sale from the Chicago White Sox in a massive package.

As you can imagine, the White Sox asked for Devers to be part of the package. However, Dombrowski had no intention of including Devers and would've nixed the deal.

"When they got into the Devers part of it, at that point, we were prepared to walk away," Dombrowski said this week.

Even without Devers in the deal, Chicago came away with a nice haul, headlined by Yoan Moncada (one of the best prospects in baseball at that time, and someone who was likely thought of as superior to Devers by outsiders) and right-hander Michael Kopech (one of the best pitching prospects in the game).

"The reality is they either wanted Benintendi or Moncada as the No. 1 guy," Dombrowski said. "Now Devers' name came up after that, but it was clear that they wanted one or the other in order to start the conversation, and the next part of the conversation was Kopech."

Even though Devers' name came up in trade discussions, Dombrowski and the Red Sox were pretty adamant about not moving the young third baseman. They made the right choice, and now he's one of the best players in the American League.