Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers has been red hot so far in the month of July, proving why he should have been an All-Star.
Fans and his fellow MLB players didn’t consider Rafael Devers worthy of a spot on the All-Star roster but the Boston Red Sox third baseman is on a mission to prove them wrong.
The All-Star reserves were announced last Sunday night after the Red Sox had wrapped up their series in London. In the four games since returning to this continent, Devers has been hitting at a blistering pace.
It began with a four-hit performance in Toronto in which Devers blasted a pair of home runs and drove in six RBI. He’s riding a nine-game hitting streak that dates back to the last series played at Fenway.
Devers has homered in each of his last two games, giving him four in his last four games. The Red Sox lineup exploded for some 4th of July fireworks led by Devers’ first-inning blast for an early lead in a game Boston would go on to win 8-7. The next night, a two-run shot would open up a lead that Boston would hang on to despite their latest bullpen meltdown.
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Devers is up to 16 home runs this season after waiting until May to collect his first. He continues to climb the RBI leader board with 11 already this month. He now ranks sixth in the league with 61 RBI despite opening the season without one in his first 12 games.
The slow start is a distant memory as Devers has emerged as one of the league’s best hitters. An 8-for-15 (.533) start to July has raised his season average to .331, second in the American League. He ranks third with a .946 OPS and .393 wOBA, 4th with 144 wRC+ and 5th with 3.5 WAR, per FanGraphs.
How is that guy not an All-Star? Granted, two of the players ahead of him in fWAR are third basemen – Alex Bregman and Matt Chapman are a tick ahead of him with 3.6 WAR. Both are deserving All-Stars. The AL still should have found a way to sneak Devers on the team. It’s going to look ridiculous when he earns MVP votes but somehow wasn’t an All-Star.
The Red Sox have a pair of established superstars in Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez who had no trouble getting selected by their peers to the All-Star Game yet it’s their young players leading this offense with breakout seasons. Devers, along with Xander Bogaerts (2nd in the league with 3.7 fWAR), is carrying the team. That wasn’t enough to get Devers to Cleveland and Bogaerts only made it as an injury replacement.
Devers isn’t getting the recognition he deserves but if he keeps up this torrid stretch he’s going to open a lot of eyes and make it impossible to keep ignoring him.