This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Just as the holiday break ended on Tuesday, a Twitter notification popped across people’s phones starting with:

“Red Sox, Rafael Devers agree on …”

For just an instant, there were some Red Sox followers who likely jumped out of their chairs and said, “Wow, it finally happened.”

Alas, it was a one-year deal at $17.5 million the Red Sox and Devers agreed upon for 2023, thus avoiding arbitration. It was not the significant extension it will take for Devers to avoid becoming a free agent when he is first eligible 10 months from now.

At worst, however, this was a neutral move for the Red Sox, and certainly not one that should come with negativity. And it could be reason for optimism.

By striking an agreement to avoid arbitration 10 days before teams and agents are required to exchange figures, it shows that there is a healthy dialogue between the Red Sox and Devers.

Also, multiple sources indicated that this agreement will in no way slow down the Red Sox's quest to keep Devers in a Boston uniform long beyond the 2023 season.

The Red Sox, after losing Xander Bogaerts to the Padres via free agency, know full well this isn’t the time to be taking another big PR hit -- not to mention losing another player with elite run-production skills.

If Devers and Boston’s front office can find common ground on an extension before Opening Day, the Red Sox have the face of their franchise for the next decade or so. If Devers stays for the rest of his career -- or at least the majority of it -- he will get the chance to move into the pantheon of all-time Red Sox players.

It would be a win-win for the front office, the players and Devers himself.

If he goes, there could be an identity crisis for a while at Fenway Park. In other words, signing Devers to a deal that will keep him out of the free-agent waters Bogaerts traveled in December is the most important thing the Red Sox have had on their to-do list in many years.