Mass Live just posted a story talking about how Devers is having his worst OVERALL (offense and defense) season since 2018 when he was a rookie.
Devers needs to spend the entire offseason working on his defense and nothing else. Is is way to young to end up being a DH because he is a butcher in the field.
BOSTON — Third baseman Rafael Devers’ bad defense again hurt the Red Sox on Tuesday. Devers made his 17th error and Boston lost 6-2 to the Astros, dropping its odds of making the playoffs to 6%, per Fangraphs.com.
“We put ourselves in a bad spot not making plays,” manager Alex Cora said.
Houston went ahead 3-1 in the fifth inning after Devers made a fielding error with one out on Mauricio Dubon’s grounder to third. Second baseman David Hamilton had a chance to turn a double play and escape the inning without any runs scored but he skipped a throw past first baseman Triston Casas. The next hitter, Alex Bregman, ripped an RBI single. Cora was asked if those two plays defined the game.
“I believe so, yeah,” Cora said. “We didn’t make two routine plays and they (the Astros) are really good at what they do.”
https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2023/08/rafael-devers-hurting-red-soxs-playoff-odds-having-worst-season-since-18.htmlDevers, who was not available to the media following the loss, entered Tuesday ranked 14th out of 15 qualified third basemen in defensive runs saved (-5). He leads all Red Sox players in WAR (2.6). But his WAR this year compared to his other seasons shows he’s having his worst year (not including COVID-shortened 2020) since 2018 when he was a 21 year old in his first full big league season.
Devers led all Red Sox players in WAR (6.7) in 2019 — ahead of Mookie Betts (6.4) and Xander Bogaerts (5.9). He posted a 4.2 WAR in 2021 and a 4.8 WAR last year.
Devers is producing offensively with a .269/.344/.509/.853 line, 29 homers, 28 doubles and 88 RBIs in 125 games. But his bad defense has him nowhere near his WAR totals from his previous three full seasons.
His 17th error Tuesday ties him for the most errors in the big leagues. It comes after he signed a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension in January.
Devers needs to spend the entire offseason working on his defense and nothing else. Is is way to young to end up being a DH because he is a butcher in the field.