What can Red Sox do about defense of third baseman Rafael Devers?

Devers is piling up errors at an alarming rate. He leads his position with 103 defensive chances, almost as if opposing hitters are hunting him to exploit his deficiencies. His .913 field percentage ranks next to last among major league third baseman with 100+ innings at the position.

Fielding percentage doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to defense but some of the advanced metrics paint a concerning picture as well.

The -2 defensive runs saved that Devers has recorded this season seems merely slightly below-average yet only four qualified third basemen have been worse. He’s on pace for -9 DRS, which would be an improvement over last year’s -13 DRS but still among the league’s worst.

Devers is also near the bottom of the league at his position with -2.7 UZR. His -8.3 UZR/150 is far worse than last year’s -5.2 UZR/150 when he was among the lowest rated third basemen by the metric.

Defensive Runs Above Average (DEF) is FanGraphs’ way of measuring a player’s defensive value relative to league average. Devers ranks 22rd among the 24 qualified major league third baseman with -2.3 DEF.

Defensive metrics can sometimes be taken with a grain of salt in small sample sizes but when these negative trends are an extension of his overall career performance, it’s fair to say that this is what Devers is at this stage of his career – one of the worst defensive third basemen in the game.