Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers’ All-Star snub is beyond ridiculous
The Boston Red Sox have arguably the best third baseman in the American League yet Rafael Devers won’t be attending the 2019 All-Star Game.
While the Boston Red Sox have some of the best players in the game, they aren’t all performing like the best players. Rafael Devers is one of the few exceptions.
In 88 games, the young third baseman manning the hot corner is hitting .324 with 16 home runs, 62 RBI, and 8 steals. Devers is leading the team with 112 hits and 346 at-bats in addition to ranking second in the league in batting average and sixth in RBI.
So how does he not get the All-Star nod?
Earlier this year, a member of the Tampa Bay Rays stated that the All-Star Game wasn’t fair because players from smaller market teams don’t get as many votes. That player was allegedly upset that he wasn’t getting as many votes as Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. JBJ is fun to watch for fielding purposes, and in the month of June slashed .315/5/14/3. With that, it would appear that his point is moot.
More from Red Sox News
- Red Sox should capitalize on Yankees’ latest roster move
- Red Sox ownership’s latest reported venture could be what’s affected team spending
- How Red Sox’ latest cheap endeavor could carve out a role in 2023
- Conflicting report about Mookie Betts trade paints Chaim Bloom in even worse light
- Boston Red Sox setting Trevor Story up for failure amidst Xander Bogaert departure
Back to Devers. The guy is crushing the ball and for some odd reason, both fans and players completely went to sleep at the wheel. Devers didn’t hit his first home run until May 3 and for the month slashed .351/8/24/3. That’s insane.
Through April, Devers committed 8 errors but turned it around entirely after that, only committing a single error in May and three more in June. For those making the case that Alex Bregman is better, he committed 7 errors this season and isn’t scaring anyone offensively outside of his home run number. Bregman is slashing .265/23/56/4 and is 14 doubles and a triple behind Devers.
Would Devers have gotten the nod if he wasn’t playing for the Sox? Absolutely. The fact of the matter is that fans don’t like the Red Sox. I would even take it a step further by stating that some fans “hate” the boys from Bean Town. Why wouldn’t you want the best players in the All-Star Game? Devers has a WAR of 3.5, the 7th best in the AL.
Fan voting is nothing but a popularity contest but the players failed to rectify this mistake when selecting the reserves.
Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman, another person who isn’t scaring anyone, was selected as the backup to Bregman.
The biggest sham on the list of reserves is Austin Meadows, who is slashing .289/12/41/8. The only offensive category that he’s leading Devers in triples, whoopee! Meadows has also struck out a dozen more times. Again, how in the world is Meadows an All-Star? He doesn’t play the same position as Devers but his fellow players could have selected an extra third baseman instead of four reserve outfielders.
Next. Marco Hernandez is auditioning for the future. dark
At the end of the day, Devers is still going to continue dominating and some will forget that he was missed. Each year, multiple players get missed which leaves us scratching our heads. Rarely do we see a player this good get omitted from the All-Star Game. One can only hope that this type of mistake doesn’t happen again in the future.