Devers After

 

Well, Rafael Devers got what he wanted. He's on the way for another 30-homer season, potentially 100 RBI season, playing where he wants, being an integral part of the team, and it's not even gonna matter even remotely in the grand scheme of this season. As his old team is putting together a potential playoff roster.

I mean, look...a year later, Devers is still justified in wanting out of Boston. The organization that made him a star was sidelining him for a 1-year rental and telling him where to play, then actively shopping him to make room only to pawn virtually everyone they got for him for parts. I wouldn't want to play for the Sox either if I was him. But while he's arguably treated better in San Francisco, this Giants team isn't going anywhere, even with people like Luis Arraez, Willy Adames, Heliot Ramos and Jung-Hoo Lee. The answers ate there, the development is there, and it's not moving. Even Devers himself took far too long to get going and only now, that the season is lost, is doing everything that he can to get back on course. He now leads the team in homers, which is easy to do when Daniel Susac, Luis Arraez and Grant McCray take up crucial roster spaces. The power game isn't there, the contact game is barely there despite TWO .300 hitters, and every great season seems to stop right when it's getting going. Ramos, Susac, Chapman, Lee and now Schmitt have all gotten hurt right when they were hitting their peak. It feels cursed.

Trevor McDonald going down the same week as Casey Schmitt feels like the real death nell. Yes, it means Carson Whisenhunt can start games, and he's been doing pretty alright for himself, but it's now down to Tyler Mahle, healthy but still a 5 ERA guy, Landon Roupp and his unabashed homophobia, Christian Koss erasing the good vibes of last season, and a very underwhelming bullpen to pick up the slack. It's great that Heliot Ramos is back and hitting, he's got 9 home runs and 34 RBIs in 70 games, but that injury took the wind out of this team's sails. Same with Jung-Hoo Lee, who's had excellent stretches but about as many mediocre ones. Even if they let Arraez or Ray go at the deadline, can this team build something so that 2027 doesn't look like this? Can Drew Gilbert finally take off? Is Devers gonna keep being this power backbone?

I think ultimately I just expected more from this team, just from how surprisingly streaky they could be, and how open the middle of the division was. But they just don't have depth right now, and Logan Webb giving more peak starts still isn't enough on its own. And so here we are, another Giants season, another purely inconsequential venture into Buster Posey's business flaws. Least he's getting a plaque next year.

Coming Tomorrow- A fun outfield bat who was just linked in trade rumors to one of my teams.