This Jock Blog is not fun to write. But maybe by talking about it, we can make progress as a Giants fan base. Kinda like therapy. Only in therapy, you pay a highly-trained professional to carefully analyze your situation and advise you the best path to mental wellness.
In the Jock Blog, you pay nothing except for your precious time to read the rantings of a half-wit who will do very little for your mental health.
And thank you in advance for your patronage.
So this Rafael Devers trade, 22 games in: Where’s the beef?
(Shout out What Did Young Tony Learn Today? Bet he doesn’t know the legendary 1980s ad campaign.)
Yes, yes, yes, small sample size. Yes, yes, yes, this trade is for eight-plus seasons not three-plus weeks. Yes, yes, yes, Devers is a proven big-league masher. His career stats shine:
— Devers’ career OPS of .856 is 16th among all active hitters, ahead of the likes of Kyle Schwarber, Jose Altuve and Manny Machado.
— Devers has 705 career RBIs, 28th among all active players and easily the best of any player aged 28 or younger. The closest in age comp is Juan Soto, a 26-year-old with 644 RBIs.
— Devers has 217 career HRs, again 28th among all active players and the only player younger than him with more is Soto.
I mean, the dude has *resume*.
So once again, where’s the beef?
Devers the San Francisco Giant seems to be caught in a bad maelstrom: a groin injury, back tightness and the mental mess of being banished — to borrow the word from the Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins — from the Boston Red Sox, his home club and the club that signed him to a big-time, we-love-you, 10-year deal just two years ago.
The Red Sox then said “we love you not” by dumping him in a trade that did not net a huge return, at least on paper.
Poor Buster Posey. Guy makes the ballsiest trade Brian Sabean lunged for the Carlos Beltran brass ring back in 2011, and the first month has been a dud.
The Giants are 10-12 with Raffy Devers as their everyday designated hitter, and considering that includes series with the reeling Guardians, the low-level White Sox and the previously-discarded Marlins (shout out the Giants kick-starting a Marlin hot streak), that’s not good.
Chew on this: the Giants’ offense has actually gotten *worse* with Devers in the last 22 games. This seems mathematically impossible. The Giants averaged 4.3 runs in the 71 games prior to the Devers trade, per Andy Baggarly in The Athletic; and have averaged 3.8 runs per game since. Head-scratcher, indeed.
It can get even more depressing when you realize the Red Sox, who were perceived to have been fleeced in the trade, are 12-9 since the trade, a better record than the Giants. Surprisingly, the Bosox offense is outperforming the Giants’ offense since the trade: Boston is fifth in runs scored … the Giants are tie-24th. The Red Sox are 7th in team OPS … the Giants are 23rd. We could go on. We will spare you.
So what’s the solution?
The Dodgers!
Yep, this weekend’s charged atmosphere at Oracle would be the absolute perfect place for Devers to barrel up a few baseballs. He can win over Northern California in a huge way — the way it was when Oracle Park greeted him with standing ovations in his first appearance on June 17 against Cleveland.
Everything about Devers’ first month screams outlier. In these 22 games, he’s hitting .225 — more than 50 points below his career average. In these 22 games, his OPS is .706 — 150 points below his career average. He’s a natural-born hitter who has to work through some things, physical and mental.
Consider this Jock Blog a lifeline to Devers. Giants fans are here for you, pal. Everyone wants to love a Devers ball in the gap. Just relax and let the natural talent flow, kid.
How’s that for therapy? Five cents, please.