Red Sox promote top 3B prospect Rafael Devers

— -- ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Two weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox had no urge to call up top prospect Rafael Devers. In fact, the last thing they wanted, according to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, was to thrust a 20-year-old third baseman into the middle of a pennant race.

But there was Dombrowski, standing in manager John Farrell's office after Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels?and announcing that Devers will join the team Monday in Seattle.

Talk about an about-face.

"Our biggest concern with him has been that if we brought him up and he struggles, like a lot of guys do, how would he handle it? And our people feel that he would handle it well at this point," Dombrowski said. "They said that he's ready to tackle that next step."

Devers is expected to start Tuesday but will be available off the bench for Monday's game.

Within the past two weeks, Devers has been promoted to Triple-A, where he notched three more hits Sunday and was 14-for-35 (.400) in nine games overall. Dombrowski heard only raves from assistant general manager Eddie Romero, farm director Ben Crockett, Triple-A manager Kevin Boles and others within the organization. He even dispatched scout Brad Sloane to Portland this weekend with specific instructions to evaluate Devers.

"The consensus is that he's a baseball player, loves to play the game," Dombrowski said. "He's ready to handle it."

But this was about more than Devers, of course.

For weeks, the Red Sox have scoped out the trade market for third basemen. Todd Frazier appeared to be a perfect short-term fix, but last Wednesday, the Chicago White Sox packaged him with relievers David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle to the New York Yankees in a deal that got too big for the Sox.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals are too close to wild-card contention to trade Mike Moustakas. The other options -- Eduardo Nunez, David Freese, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jed Lowrie, Yunel Escobar -- weren't especially appealing.

"The options that had been presented to us, our people would say, 'Why would you try that? Why don't you try [Devers]?'" Dombrowski said. "He's in a position where he can do it. The request for some of the [trade candidates] that would be minimally better for us have been very large. And so, we really think [Devers] gives us as good a chance as anybody we've had a chance to acquire for third base."

By calling up Devers, the Red Sox might be able to focus their attention on upgrading the bullpen before the trade deadline. They had a scout in Philadelphia on Sunday, presumably to watch reliever Pat Neshek. They also have been linked to Detroit Tigers lefty Justin Wilson and New York Mets right-hander Addison Reed, among others.

With Hanley Ramirez playing first base more regularly over the past week, the Red Sox could look to add a hitter without specifically targeting a third baseman.

"We're just going to continue to monitor everything at this point," Dombrowski said. "The requests are quite large at this point, but there's still a week before the trading deadline."

Devers spent the first half of the season at Double-A Portland and batted .300 with 18 homers and 56 RBIs in 77 games and rose to No. 3 Keith Law's midseason rankings of MLB's top 50 prospects for ESPN.

One American League scout recently said that Devers is "much more selective" than he was last season and described his improvement as "becoming a man."

"I faced him six times [in live batting practice in spring training], and he's a pain in the ass," Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello said. "He's a great kid, from what I've seen and talked to him. I love his swing and everything he does. I'm excited to see him."

Over the past few years, the Red Sox have promoted several top prospects midseason. Last season, they called up left fielder Andrew Benintendi on Aug. 1 and infielder Yoan Moncada at the beginning of September. In 2013, shortstop Xander Bogaerts was called up in mid-August.

The Red Sox are already attempting to minimize expectations on Devers, with Dombrowski noting that he will hit near the bottom of the order and Farrell suggesting that he might not play against tough lefties. But there's no denying that the Sox will rely more heavily on Devers than their previous top prospects for no other reason than that they have gotten less production out of the third-base position than any team in the majors.

"It's important to note, while there's going to be a lot of focus on his arrival here, he is a young player. There are going to be some ups and downs that we'll live with and experience, but the time has come for Devers to meet his mark," Farrell said. "The ability to drive the ball is there. I think we have to temper our expectations when he comes here."

The Red Sox just didn't expect Devers to come up so quickly.