Only When I Raf

 

I wonder how Miguel Cabrera thinks about the fact that the Tigers got extremely good the year after he retired. I wonder how Nomar Garciaparra thinks about the fact that the Red Sox won their first championship in years after trading him to the Cubs. I wonder how Jason Giambi feels about the fact that his Yankees tenure bookends World Series wins but doesn't include any. I bet they'd know how Rafael Devers feels. He asked to be traded because he was going nowhere in Boston and wanted to play for a competitor, so he gets dealt to San Francisco, who has the worst record in baseball since he joined. And the Sox are competing without him. 

Almost as if he was the problem. 

Look, the thing about the player as powerful as Rafael Devers is that we could say all these disparaging things about him and then he'll bounce back and make it all moot. Bryce Harper was the butt of a lot of jokes when he left the Nationals in 2019 and then the Nats won a World Series without him despite the team being built around him. The joke was on the Nats in the end, as Bryce won an MVP in Philly, got to a World Series and will likely go into Cooperstown as a Phillie. So this first year, and this downfall, for Devers and the Giants may not ultimately be indicative of anything.

However...Rafael Devers was much better in Boston this year. We're still in the period from before he started finding the ball, that April period that pissed the Sox fans off. In 60 games with the Giants, Devers has hit .226, with 36 RBIs and 10 homers. The DH that we feared Devers would be replacing, Wilmer Flores, is an upgrade. It's nice that Devers can swing to 1st or play 3rd again, but he's not hitting like he did and it's costing the team. You'd think a team with Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, Logan Webb and Rafael Devers would compete but it's not. They've run into some awful luck, like a dissipated core from last year, the flaws of Heliot Ramos, the back half of the rotation snapping off and the awful move of trading Mike Yastrzemski to a team with a similar record. If Devers was actually playing like he was in Boston, they'd maybe have 5 or so more wins and be right in the thick of it. 

There's a chance that this team somehow comes together next year and quiets all the critics, but as it stands right now this isn't pretty, and Devers himself doesn't come out too great. We'll see what the long term ramifications are.

Coming Tonight: He steals a lot of bases, and right now that seems to be enough.