The Boston Red Sox's season has not gone to plan but there are still some individuals worthy of praise for their on-field performances.
Baseball America created a survey that was sent out to Major League Baseball managers, scouts and executives to rank some of the top performers in the sport. Among those to be praised were Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers and second baseman Trevor Story.
Devers was deemed the No. 3 hitter in the American League in the poll, trailing Houston Astros' Yordan Alvarez and Minnesota Twins' Luis Arraez respectively. Alvarez has been tearing the cover off the ball all season but Arraez, a contact hitter by all accounts, is a surprise. It's also blasphemous to not have Yankees superstar Aaron Judge on the list.
Still, Devers is a worthy candidate with a .292 average, 59 extra-base hits including 25 home runs and a .886 OPS.
The other Red Sox recognition was Story being named the No. 3 defensive second baseman in the AL. Red Sox manager Alex Cora spoke previously about how he believes Story is the best defensive second baseman in the league. While voters in this most recent poll did not go that far, they are seeing a lot of the same things. Had Story played the full season, he would have had more time to improve his ranking. Still, he only needed 83 games played at the position to be among the best, which bodes well moving forward.
