The New York Yankees have spent another summer chasing October while watching a familiar story unfold in the American League East.
Tampa Bay is positioned to take the division, leaving the Bronx club on track for a Wild Card berth and another reminder that regular-season success has not yet translated into the championship the fan base still expects.
That gap has already started to shape the offseason conversation, and one of the more intriguing names now attached to it is Rafael Devers.
ESPN’s Buster Olney recently suggested the Yankees could be an unusually good fit for the $313.5 million slugger if San Francisco decides to move him.
“You know who is actually the perfect team for him, Rafael Devers has demonstrated he just needs coverage,” Olney said. “He doesn’t like doing the media; he would be perfect with the Yankees. All he would have to do with the Yankees is hit.”
Olney pointed to the clubhouse as the other half of the argument, recalling how Juan Soto’s earlier friction in San Diego largely disappeared once he arrived in New York.
“We saw Juan Soto, there was all this stuff in San Diego he didn’t get along with everyone, he went to the Yankees and you didn’t hear a peep about any of that stuff because it’s the way their clubhouse culture is,” Olney added.
A Devers trade would still qualify as a stunner. The Giants took him from Boston only to watch the marriage stall, and he still has seven seasons remaining on the 10-year, $313.5 million contract. That is a massive financial and roster commitment.
Yet, Giancarlo Stanton’s deal is nearing its end, and New York has already begun to look at how first base and designated hitter might look beyond the current group.
Devers, hitting .258 with 37 home runs and 98 RBI this season, remains a two-time Silver Slugger and three-time All-Star whose left-handed power would play well in the Stadium.
The Yankees themselves are still focused on the present. They sit at 86-63 after taking two of three from the Mets and now turn to a road series in Minnesota.
What Olney’s comments make clear is that if the Giants put Devers on the market, New York is already being discussed as more than a distant possibility.
