David Ortiz, the most important player the Red Sox have ever had because of the way he produced and the way they won with him in their lineup, was 27 when he showed up in Boston from the Twins. Rafael Devers, the most complete hitter the Sox have had since Ortiz, doesn’t turn 26 until October. Papi. Raffy. If Devers stays at Fenway, he can be that kind of player. And has one World Series in the books already.

Devers is that talented. If he is blessed with good health this season -- it always starts there, and if you don’t believe that, ask Jacob deGrom -- he will be one of the great, breakout young stars of baseball by the time he does turn 26, right in the middle of the time when the next World Series will be played.

There has been an extraordinary, historic line of Hall of Fame left-handed hitters at Fenway, despite a Green Monster in left that looks close enough to reach out and touch from home plate: Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs, Ortiz. Now comes this gifted kid at third base, who ended the last regular season this way against the Nationals, on a win-and-in game for the Sox that won them a home Wild Card game against the Yankees:

Four hits. Four RBIs. Two home runs. The last homer came in the ninth, as the Red Sox were coming all the way back from 5-1 down, a tiebreaking two-run shot.

“This is only the first celebration,” Devers said that day, before the Sox beat the Yankees and won their American League Division Series against the Rays and finally were two wins away from making it back to the World Series.

The Red Sox are going to mash this season. They have added Trevor Story to a wonderfully balanced lefty-righty batting order. But the star of that order is Devers. Whatever the Red Sox will do on offense this season, whatever they are going to be, will organize around their third baseman. Is he the best third baseman around? Red Sox fans know he is not. They also know this:

He is their Juan Soto. Their birthdays are even just one day apart, though Devers is three years older.

Soto is crazy good, everybody knows that. He is starting his fifth season with the Nationals. Soto hit .351 in the COVID-shortened season of 2020. He had 29 homers and 95 RBIs and hit .313 in ’21, with not much help in Washington. In '19, he hit 34 home runs and knocked in 110.

In Devers’ last full season before 2021, he hit 32 home runs and knocked in 115 and hit .311. He backed that up the way he did last season. So yeah, he is an ascendant star the way Soto is. Devers has already played seven postseason series in his career, has a lifetime batting average of .303. Last October, in the two series against the Rays and the Astros, he had five home runs, 12 RBIs and 13 hits in 10 games. He has already begun to show a Papi-like flair for the dramatic, and for showing up when the lights are brightest.

Here is something a respected member of the Red Sox organization, one who asked that his name not be used in this story, said this week about Devers:

“I wasn’t around when Ted and Yaz were young. But I saw Wade Boggs foul off pitch after pitch, something he did constantly and consistently until he got one to hit. I’ve seen a lot of other good hitters here. But I’ve never seen a young guy like Raffy. And on top of everything else, he’s a sweet kid.”

“[Devers] reminds me a little bit of what Robbie Canó was like when he was young,” Buck Showalter said.

High praise indeed. It is because there is such a high ceiling for Devers, even as he is already about to enter his sixth season with the Red Sox. This may be the season when he first hits 40 home runs for the Sox. They are moving up on a big decision about a new contract for him the way they are with Xander Bogaerts, who was an exciting kid in a World Series for the Red Sox in 2013 the way Devers, over there to his right on the left side of the Red Sox infield, would be five years later when the Red Sox again won it all.

At best, to be as kind as possible, Devers is still a work in progress defensively. He has made 82 errors in the last four seasons, and that number includes his short 57-game season in 2020. But if he is also still a work in progress as a hitter, one who seems to keep getting better, then the rest of the AL East and the rest of the league and the rest of baseball better look out.

You know how many young stars there are in baseball at this time. Sometimes outside of Boston, people overlook the fact that Devers is absolutely one of them. Still just 25 years old. Two years younger than Ortiz when he arrived in Boston. Papi’s not there any longer. Raffy is. Say it again: Look out for him this season.