Rafael Devers won’t get much better than this

Jun 14, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers (16) reacts after flying out against the Chicago Cubs during the second inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Or, in the Giants’ case, you mostly lose. It has been a year since the Giants traded for Rafael Devers, and like most of their big swings since allowing Buster Posey to take the reins of the front office, the team has come up empty and looked bad in the attempt. It turns out that the critics of the deal were spot on.

Devers’ contract was underwater from the moment the Red Sox signed him to it and the collapse of his skillset came even faster than the projection. Do the Giants inspire failure or does everything they touch turn to garbage by sheer coincidence? In any case, there’s nothing that can be done to improve Devers’ hitting.

He’s hitting .235/.293/.

413 on the season while playing every game. He has 9 homers and is tied for the lead league in doubles with 21; so, you know, it’s not all bad. But the underlying metrics affirm what we’ve seen throughout the year: a hitter who’s a mess at the plate.

At the end of May, I looked at Matt Chapman’s hitting metrics and came away with the thought that he’s not in an age-related decline but instead a focus or talent disruption. I see a vaguely similar situation for Devers, too. He still hits the ball hard.

That counts for something. His 49.5% Hard Hit rate is 88th percentile and average exit velocity of 91.

9 mph is 87th. His 9.5% Barrel rate is the only other category where he measures as above average (61st percentile); but, these are all still big declines from last year, and especially his heyday of 2021-2024 (.

279/.354/.519 — 126 HR 384 RBI — +17.

0 fWAR). He’s also whiffing on pitches at the same rate over the past several years. It’s 31.

6% this year (10th percentile), but compare that back to 2021:2021: 27.7% (29th