RAFAEL DEVERS: SAN FRANCISCO GIANT!!!

HE’S HERE!! RAFAEL DEVERS IS A SAN FRANCISCO GIANT!!

Earlier today, the San Francisco Giants introduced their newest player, Rafael Devers. He was traded to the Giants on Sunday for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs III, and Jose Bello. This is just an insanely massive move for the organization, city, and fan base. The future of Giants baseball is alive and well. For those who don’t know about the newest addition, lets go over who he is as a player, and what he is going to bring to the table for the Orange and Black.

Rafael Devers, 28, has spent his entire career with the Boston Red Sox. Many people around the organization called him the next rendition of David Ortiz, a known power hitting lefty. Boy, has he lived up to that hype. In his nine years in the MLB, he is averaging .274, an .859 OPS, smashing 215 homers and 696 at the time of writing this (hopefully a few more by the time the weekend rolls around). The guy just finds a way to get on base, and make a meaningful impact on the field while doing so. In his career, he has earned a bid to All Star Weekend three times, one Silver Slugger Award, and finished top 18 in MVP voting three times. If you ask me, that’s a pretty impressive resume. Plus, he’s hit more than 30 homeruns three times in his career. Giants fans know, the last time this organization had a 30+ homerun hitter was the great Barry Bonds back in 2004. I can confidently say that the streak will end with Rafael Devers. This season alone, he’s batting .272, a .905 OPS, with 15 big ones and 58 RBIs. WE GOT A HITTER.

Obviously, a bat like this being added to the lineup is an absolutely massive addition. The G-Men have been struggling a little bit at the plate as of late, but have slowly started to pick it up in the last few games. With Rafael Devers batting mostly in the three hole, it gives the Giants a chance to score early, and to score often. Presuming Lee is going to be leading off, there is a good chance that he will be on base for Devers to try to drive him in. While it isn’t a guarantee, there is more hope that this can happen now with Devers.

One of the biggest questions I see floating around is, “what position is he going to play? There’s no way in hell he plays third over Chapman.” You’d be correct. Devers, Buster Posey, and Bob Melvin have already talked through options, and he will be DH’ing to begin with, while taking reps at first base to transition him to that role. This is something that he would not do with the Red Sox, which was a big point of contention in this whole trade. In my opinion, I never saw an attitude problem in San Francisco happening with Devers, simply because it sounded like he felt disrespected by the Red Sox, and wanted a fresh start. This also gives the Giants #1 prospect, Bryce Eldridge, more time to develop in AAA. He hasn’t been crushing it in AAA like he was in AA, so having Devers play first for a bit will be a much better situation for Eldridge in the long run. There was no reason to bring him up in the first place, but this signing, and Devers’s willingness to play first for the Giants, makes it a no-brainer for him to stay down in AAA and develop to his full potential.

It obviously always hurts to give up talent, but for me, I really think the front office did a great job not giving up too much value. Harrison will be a great pitcher for the Sox, and I really hope Hicks can figure it out as well. I was iffy on James Tibbs just because he’s been crushing it in high A, but this is for the best. It’s tough to not give up a top 5 prospect for a name like this, so I really do think the Giants gave up as little as possible, while keeping their core in tact. In doing this, the Giants take on his full contract, which at this point is looking to be around 8 years, $256 million (originally 10 years, $313 million.) Yes that number is scary, especially since the biggest contract the Giants previously owned is the 7 year, $182 million of Willy Adames. Look, the Giants have been in the sweepstakes for Judge, Ohtani, Harper, Stanton, you name it. They have the money, why not spend it on one of the best offensive players in the game? They’ve tried to do it before, I see no difference in this move, especially since this contract is drastically smaller than the last two contracts they hunted out.

This is an organization changing move, and I could not be more excited about the future of the Giants for years and years to come. Devers said it best in his presser, “I just want to win. I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.” If that doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what will. Posey said they want to be the last team standing in October, and with a move like this, it is 1000% a bigger possibility now.

Thanks for reading this, hopefully it made a little bit of sense and cleared the air about the confusing and shocking trade. If you aren’t tuned into Giants baseball, start tuning in. It’s going to get real fun, real fast.