Rafael

Devers

Devers blasted a 432 foot moonshot as the Giants tried to make up a two touchdown deficit against the Rockies in Coors Field. They’d never get close to striking distance, but it’s nice to see that Devers has fully pulled the nose up on his season. Overall, he’s up to 16 home runs and a .775 OPS. Over the last 30 days, he’s hit nine of those home runs and has an .893 OPS. That looks much more like the Devers we know than who he was over the first chunk of the season.

Devers drew a pair of walks in this one and slugged a solo homer off Taylor Clarke to lead off the seventh inning, a 111.3 mph blast at 424 feet to give the Giants their second run in the game. The home run was Devers’ 15th of the season while slashing 242/.304/.459 with 39 runs scored and 44 RBI. The home run also marks the 250th in his career for the 29-year-old slugger.

Devers’ first homer traveled 404 feet to center. The second went 359 feet and clanged off the foul pole in right. It’s Devers’ first two-homer game of the year and 23rd of his career. He has seven homers in June and 14 for the year, but he’s still at just .240/.300/.454 overall, and he’s on pace for 202 strikeouts. He’d never topped 150 strikeouts before finishing with 192 last year.

Giants president Buster Posey told reporters that Devers and manager Tony Vitello had a conversation following a bizarre incident where he tried to wave off a pinch-runner during the ninth inning of Sunday’s loss to the Marlins. The 29-year-old slugger doesn’t appear to be facing any discipline from the club for his actions. He’s been at the epicenter of trade speculation and figures to be on the move by the trade deadline in early August.

This was pretty amazingly immature stuff. The bench signaled to Devers that he was coming out, and he started shaking his finger at the manager. As Jonah Cox got to first base to sub in for him, Devers tried to wave him off and send him back out to the dugout, leaving the rookie bewildered. Finally, the first base ump had to step in and indicate that Cox was in the game, at which point Devers walked the dugout and threw off his helmet. It’ll be interesting to see if anything results from this. Most players would probably get benched for a game at minimum.

Devers pushed his hitting streak to five-straight games with Friday’s performance and has now homered three times in his last seven games. The lefty who is reportedly on the trade block is slashing just .210/.329/.484 this month, but will make for an intriguing option at this year’s trade deadline if he can get hot over the next month.

Olney adds that Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray are also obvious trade candidates. All indications are that Logan Webb is one of the few untouchables for San Francisco as they pivot towards more of a long-term build. The Giants sit at 29–43, nine games out of a playoff spot. Nothing appears imminent, but barring a dramatic turnaround, San Francisco is shaping up to be a seller ahead of the trade deadline in early August.

Devers also drew a walk and scored a second run in the high-scoring affair. His bat came alive in May, easing concerns over another slow start. His season-long numbers still aren’t where fantasy drafters expected, however, and his strikeout rate remains just over 30%. Ultimately, Devers’ track record is strong enough to expect more from here on out.

Devers did smoke the one ball he put into play, but it turned into a 108-mph groundout. Devers has a 30.9 percent strikeout rate and a 6.6 percent walk rate right now. His career marks coming into the season were 22.0 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.

The first double was a popup down the left field line that was originally ruled foul and overturned. The last hit was a single, but Devers still ended up on third on that one, as the Rockies just kept throwing the ball around. It’s Devers’ third career three-double game. The others both came in 2019, and one actually saw him collect four doubles. It was also his third career game with four runs scored. All of those have come since the start of last year.