Red Sox pushing injured Rafael Devers during lost season will come back to haunt them

The Boston Red Sox's offense has been dismal in the final weeks of their Wild Card chase. Not even Rafael Devers could save it.

Devers posted a stellar season until August. Before the All-Star break, it felt like the third baseman was slugging homers and racking up hits at a rate he'd never met before. Devers was named an All-Star himself, but he skipped the game to rest his ailing shoulders. All the while, he played on for the Red Sox.

Devers has been nursing shoulder injuries since spring training, and they seem to affect his performance more than before. He's slashing .196/.283/.304 in his last 30 games, his coldest stretch of the season by far.

After the Red Sox's deflating extra-innings loss to the Twins on Sept. 20, manager Alex Cora announced that Devers would undergo an MRI on his right shoulder the following morning. His stellar season is "probably" over.

Rafael Devers to undergo MRI, Red Sox will "probably" play the rest of the season without him

The results of Devers' scan haven't been announced. The 27-year-old claims his skid at the plate has nothing to do with the injury, but something has changed, and the Red Sox could've stepped in sooner.

After Boston's offense screeched to a halt in late August and September, it became quite clear that it didn't have a shot at the postseason. The struggling bullpen didn't help matters, but the bats didn't give the arms many leads to hold onto in the late innings.

Devers knew it wouldn't be Boston's year before the season even started. At spring training, he told reporters that "everybody knows what [the Red Sox] need" to compete, but none of those reinforcements came. Devers played through his shoulder pain, potentially worsening his injuries, just for the Sox to run out of steam when it matters for the third straight year.

Hopefully, the results of Devers' MRI don't show anything too severe. He played 138 games on his ailing shoulders, though, which may not bode well for his healing process. The Red Sox will be lucky if Devers can have a full, healthy offseason without surgical intervention.

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