Ranking top 10 MLB players traded in the 2020s: Where Rafael Devers fits among Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, more

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Rafael Devers was just traded by the Red Sox in the middle of his prime, in the middle of a great season at the plate and in the middle of a monster contract. Sure, it doesn’t happen often, but big-name, star players in Major League Baseball do get traded.

In fact, let’s take the opportunity to rank the top 10 players traded this decade. We’ll skip the pedantry on what qualifies as a “decade” and just say this is the 2020s, so the clock started Jan. 1, 2020 and runs through the present. 

The players will be ranked based upon how good they were thought to be at the time traded. This means, for example, we’re ranking 2021 Kris Bryant, not 2025. We’re also only looking strictly at how good the player was when traded, not the circumstances behind the deal, such as when he was set to hit free agency soon, whether you believe the trading team should have traded the player or not, the return on the deal, etc.

Got it? Good! 

Rafael Devers trade grades: Giants get ‘B’ for big swing, Red Sox escape drama partially of their own making

R.J. Anderson

The initial brainstorm yielded a large list, so we can start with the non-top-10ers. 

Honorable mention: Luis Castillo, Kris Bryant, Chris Sale, Matt Chapman, Garrett Crochet, Justin Verlander, Yu Darvish, Josh Hader, Tyler Glasnow, Robbie Ray, Luis Arraez, Pablo Lopez, Teoscar Hernandez, Chris Bassitt, Jordan Montgomery

Reminder that we’re ranking these players as they were at the time they were traded, so Sale going on to win the 2024 NL Cy Young doesn’t matter as much as what he was at the time he was traded (a 34 year old coming off a 4.30 ERA who hadn’t pitched a full season in five years). Also, remember the Justin Verlander here is the 2023 version and NOT the 2017 version the Astros acquired in a trade, as the latter would sit toward the top of the rankings. Still, this is quite the list of players traded in 5 ½ years to not make the top 10. 

Trade: From the Mets to the Rangers on July 30, 2023, for Luisangel Acuña

Yes, this is a ranking of the top 10 players traded in the 2020s and we’re starting at No. 12. I’m glad it’s Scherzer because it’s a good chance to explain that we are ranking 10 players, not trades. In other words, two different players were traded twice and both times were good enough to make the list. 

Scherzer was traded post-prime in 2023, but he was still very good. The 2022 version of Scherzer made only 23 starts and racked up 5.3 WAR with a 2.29 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 152 ⅔ innings. When he was traded in 2019, he was 9-4 with a 4.01 ERA (104 ERA+), 1.19 WHIP and 121 strikeouts in 107 ⅔ innings. And even if the numbers weren’t amazing, he was still close enough to vintage Scherzer that he merited induction on this list. He went on to pitch to a 3.20 ERA and 0.96 WHIP with 53 strikeouts in 45 innings for the Rangers the rest of the way before mustering three scoreless innings in the World Series. The Rangers, of course, won it all. 

Trade: From the Brewers to the Orioles on Feb. 1, 2024, for DL Hall and Joey Ortiz

Burnes became a bona fide ace in the 2020-21 range and won the 2021 Cy Young. It was a huge move by the Orioles to grab him at the time, as they had a plethora of excellent position-playing prospects and needed to supplement the group with pitchers of similar caliber. Burnes was coming off a season where he was an All-Star and finished eighth in NL Cy Young voting with a 3.39 ERA (127 ERA+), though only 3.5 WAR. He was certainly an ace by name and it was a move the Orioles had to make, but he wasn’t a top-level elite ace in 2023. He’d go 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 181 strikeouts in 194 ⅓ innings for the Orioles in 2024 and provide an ace-like outing in the playoffs, though without run support. 

10. Rafael Devers

Trade: From the Red Sox to the Giants on June 15, 2025, for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs and Jose Bello

Devers is a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger who apparently fell out of favor with the Boston brass. So far in 2025, in a touch less than a half season, he is hitting .272/.401/.504 (152 OPS+) with 18 doubles, 15 homers, 58 RBI, 47 runs and 2.3 WAR. He was leading the American League in walks, too. He’s topped out at 54 doubles, 38 homers, 115 RBI, a .311 batting average and a 142 OPS+ in full seasons before and is in the middle of his prime at age 28. 

Trade: From the Athletics to the Braves on March 14, 2022 for Shea Langeliers, Cristian Pache, Joey Estes and Ryan Cusick

Unlike Matt Chapman (an honorable mention), Olson wasn’t coming off a bit of a down year when he was traded. Instead, he was coming off his age-27 season and had just hit .271/.371/.540 (153 OPS+) with 35 doubles, 39 homers, 111 RBI, 101 runs and 5.9 WAR while playing half his games in a ballpark known for hurting offense. He finished eighth in AL MVP voting that season and then would be traded the following winter. He’d lead the majors in homers and RBI in 2023. 

Trade: From the Astros to the Cubs on Dec. 13, 2024, for Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith and Hayden Wesneski

Tucker’s ascent was gradual for the playoff mainstay Astros. He debuted in 2018, saw time in 2019, was a full-time starter by 2020-21, an All-Star in 2022 and a top-five MVP finisher in 2023. He played less than half a season in 2024 due to a lingering leg injury from an errant foul ball (is there another kind?). In his 78 games, though, he was taking another step forward. He hit .289/.408/.585 (179 OPS+) with 13 doubles, 23 homers, 49 RBI, 56 runs, 11 steals and 4.7 WAR. 

Trade: From the Nationals to the Dodgers (alongside Max Scherzer) on July 30, 2021, for Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz, Donovan Casey and Gerardo Carrillo

Turner posted 4.9 WAR in 2018 and then 4.0 WAR before being productive in the playoffs as the Nationals won the World Series. It was only 59 games under weird circumstances, but he truly started to become a star in 2020. At the time of the trade in 2021, though Turner wasn’t quite as big a name as the pitcher he was dealt with, he was a major needle-mover for the Dodgers. In his 96 games with the Nats before the deal, Turner hit .322/.369/.521 (142 OPS+) with 17 doubles, three triples, 18 homers, 49 RBI, 66 runs, 21 steals and 4.1 WAR. He wouldn’t slow down with the Dodgers, in fact, he was better and he won the National League batting title (.328) while leading the league in total bases and steals. He also led the majors in hits, recording 6.5 WAR and finishing fifth in NL MVP voting. 

Trade: From the Guardians to the Mets (alongside Carlos Carrasco) on Jan. 7, 2021, for Andrés Giménez, Amed Rosario, Isaiah Greene and Josh Wolf

At the time of the trade, Lindor was heading to his age-27 season and had already finished in the top 10 of MVP voting three times. He’d played in the World Series. He had a 25-steal season and three times had topped both 40 doubles and 30 homers. He led the majors with 129 runs scored in 2018. All of this came along with being a superb defender at the premium defensive position of shortstop. He topped out at 7.3 WAR in 2018 and though he dropped to 4.8 in 2019, there was always MVP upside in there. Sure enough, he finished second last season. 

Trade: From the Rockies to the Cardinals on Feb. 1, 2021, for Austin Gomber, Elehuris Montero, Jake Sommers, Tony Locey and Mateo Gil

First off, good lord, Rockies. Trading a franchise icon and getting no helpful players in return is quite a move. But that’s not our point here today.

Arenado was dealt heading to his age-30 season. He was an ironman who played every day with exceptional defense at third base. His 162-game averages (we’ll use those because this loops in the 60-game season in 2020 and he was never hurt) from 2015-2020: .298/.359/.567, 39 doubles, four triples, 40 homers, 126 RBI, 105 runs and 6.5 WAR. 

I could see an argument for putting Lindor ahead of Arenado here based on age and position, but in just looking at the production leading up to the trade, Arenado was better.

4. Max Scherzer (2021)

Trade: See Turner, Trea

This was Prime Scherzer being moved midseason for the first time. He had finished first, fifth, fifth, first, first, second and third in Cy Young voting to finish the 2010s and then the fake 2020 season happened. In 2021, Scherzer was 8-4 with a 2.76 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 147 strikeouts in 111 innings with the Nationals before this deal. In 11 starts after, he would go 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA and a ridiculous 89 strikeouts against eight walks in 68 ⅓ innings. He’d finish third in Cy Young voting and serve as the Dodgers’ playoff ace, even closing down the NLDS in relief. 

Trade: From the Nationals to the Padres (alongside Josh Bell) on Aug. 2, 2022, for James Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Luke Voit, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana

A generational talent in the batter’s box, Soto was dealt in the midst of his lowest batting-average season here. I only mention that because it’s why he’s here at No. 3 on this list, not higher. In 2021, Soto raked to the tune of .313/.465/.534 and finished with 7.3 WAR. In 2022, though, he was hitting .246/.408/.485 with 3.7 WAR in 101 games when the Nationals dealt him for a monster haul to San Diego. 

2. Juan Soto (2023)

Trade: From the Padres to the Yankees (alongside Trent Grisham) on Dec. 7, 2023, for Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Kyle Higashioka, Jhony Brito and Drew Thorpe

In the 2023 season, Soto was back to being a more well-rounded hitter, slashing .275/.410/.519 (155 OPS+). It’s a total nitpick as to which version of Soto was better and doesn’t really matter, because it was less than a season and a half from each other and both were in the middle of his prime for a superstar who already had a batting title and World Series championship. 

The main takeaway is Soto would’ve been the best player traded in the 2020s (twice!) if not for one pesky other player.

Trade: From the Red Sox to the Dodgers (alongside David Price) on Feb. 10, 2020, for Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong and Jeter Downs

From the second I started this list, all roads were leading here. There’s an argument to be made that the Red Sox knew they couldn’t re-sign Betts and so they had to get what they could for him before he hit free agency, but, as already established, we’re not worrying about that in the rankings. 

Betts was one of the best players in history to be traded in terms of how good he was at the time of the move. In 2018, the Red Sox won the World Series and Betts was the near-unanimous American League MVP, ahead of Mike Trout and José Ramírez, with a whopping 10.7 WAR. In 2019, at age 26, Betts hit .295/.391/.524 with 40 doubles, five triples, 29 homers, 80 RBI, 135 runs, 16 steals and 7.2 WAR. He won both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger. By the time Boston shipped him out, Betts had already won an MVP and led his team to a World Series title. 

The five-tool superstar appears destined for the Hall of Fame.

This news was originally published on this post .

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