Red Sox promote Devers to Triple-A

The Red Sox have promoted their No. 1 prospect, Rafael Devers, to Triple-A Pawtucket.
Ranked No. 12 overall by MLB.com, the 20-year-old third baseman moves up after hitting .300 with 18 homers and 56 RBIs in 77 games with Double-A Portland, a source told CSNNE.com in Boston. The move was later confirmed by the PawSox.

It's a promotion that has been long anticipated, though, especially after the Red Sox moved fellow third base prospect Michael Chavis to Portland from Class A Advanced Salem on June 22. The two have since split time at third and designated hitter over the last 18 games.
The move also comes in the wake of Boston dismissing third basemen Jhonny Peralta and Pablo Sandoval -- Peralta, 35, was released from Pawtucket on July 13, and Sandoval was designated for assignment earlier on Friday.
"[Devers has] moved so quickly, being a 20-year-old in Double-A, and one of the youngest players in that league," Red Sox vice president of player development Ben Crockett told CSNNE.com last month. "And having that type of success he's had offensively is awesome." 
Devers signed with the Red Sox out of the Dominican Republic in 2013 and quickly scaled the organization's prospect rankings after posting consistent numbers in his first two full seasons. He batted .288 with 11 homers and 70 RBIs in 2015 for Class A Greenville and repeated that performance last summer at Salem, where he hit .282 with 11 home runs and 71 RBIs. A bump to the Eastern League this spring saw his numbers pop even more -- he's hitting .282 against lefties, .306 against righties and was his best in June, when he went 30-for-92 (.326) with eight homers and 22 RBIs. He's hit third in the lineup most of the season and is batting .321 with runners in scoring position.
The lefty-swinging infielder ranks second in the Eastern League in total bases (165), fourth in homers, third in slugging (.575) and OPS (.944), fifth in RBIs, sixth in runs (48), 13th in OBP (.369) and 14th in average.
Devers was selected to his second Futures Game this month after he was named an Eastern League All-Star earlier this summer. He was the league's Player of the Week on May 7, was an end-of-season Carolina League All-Star last year and has been recognized three times by MiLB.com as a Red Sox Organizational All-Star.