Rafael Devers was amazing in 2019…. with the bat. While his offensive production (.311/32/115) definitely overshadowed his defensive struggles, the young third baseman still wasn’t amazing with the glove.
While Devers definitely improved from his 2018 season and he made lots of flashy plays in 2019, he still committed 22 errors. While he made eight errors through April 28 which raised his total for the season, he still made 14 in the final five months of the season.
While his Defensive Runs Saved Above Average was -5, a big improvement from -15 in 2018, Devers can still better his defensive work in 2019. He has a cannon of an arm and can make flashy plays with the best of them. His main weakness is that he still doesn’t consistently make the routine plays.
While it’s definitely not the reason the Red Sox struggled in 2019, if Carita (Baby Face) wants to take the next step towards becoming an elite player on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, he will make the routine plays more often in 2020.
If Devers shows that he can’t play third base consistently, which he definitely has the ability to do, he could get moved to first base – a position the Red Sox have a hole at entering 2020. Despite that, Raffy will be the starting third base for the Red Sox come 2020.
In order to join the MVP conversation in 2020, Devers will have to become a more consistent defensive player and will also grow off of his spectacular 2019 offensive statistics.