Winning cures all, and Devers’ performance (.285 batting average, .901 OPS, 152 OPS+, seven home runs) has been a major boost to this lineup. Yet, the Red Sox still need more from someone who should be the face of the franchise.

Spotrac puts his market value at 12 years, $539 million. ESPN's Jeff Passan also recently had Tucker in his rarefied air of players who could sign $500 million contracts. And if the Cubs are the ones making that happen, it's pretty unlikely they'll then turn around and trade for the roughly quarter of a billion dollars left on Devers' deal.

According to Ken Rosenthal, signing Rafael Devers to a long-term extension was a direct result of the fan reaction to the Boston Red Sox failure to keep Mookie Betts.