The Giants Can Only Go As Far as Rafael Devers Does

A year ago, we were talking about the San Francisco Giants as one of the better teams in baseball. They opened the 2025 season on a roll and decided to further their World Series hopes by acquiring Rafael Devers in a trade that shocked the league.

Unfortunately, they struggled to truly get going after the deal and ended up missing the playoffs entirely by three games.

The opening to the new campaign has been a completely different story, and frankly, Giants fans are hoping to see an inverse of what took place last season. Whether it’s due to having the worst outfield in baseball, or a rollercoaster of a bullpen, the San Francisco Giants have gotten off to one of the worst starts across Major League Baseball to open this year’s campaign.

Possibly the biggest factor into the slow start, however, has been what Devers has done up to this point. Simply put, he has not looked like the perennial masher the Giants thought they were getting. Of course, we’re only 21 games in at this point, but Devers turning things around will be huge for the club getting things going as a whole.

With San Francisco missing out on several marquee free agents like Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Bryce Harper, Devers was brought in to be the star in the middle of this lineup.

All stats updated prior to games on Sunday, April 19

Devers Was Supposed to be the Chosen One

For the better part of the last decade, Devers had been one of the best hitters in the sport. It was no secret that the Giants were going to have an extremely hard time signing someone of his caliber in free agency, simply due to the pitcher-friendly nature of their stadium, Oracle Park.

Since his debut in 2017, Devers ranks in the top 20 across baseball in a handful of offensive statistics, such as home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, and slugging percentage.

His 235 career home runs were especially notable considering the fact that the Giants hadn’t had a prominent home run hitter in the middle of their lineup since the retirement of Barry Bonds.

The Giants also hadn’t had a 30-home run hitter for north of two decades until Willy Adames did it in his first season in the orange and black. Devers, on the other hand, came to town with four campaigns where he’s launched at least 30 long balls himself.

The Giants did get good returns from Devers, initially. Naturally, it took him awhile to get going with a move across the country and a brand new franchise to settle into. However, once he got comfortable, he looked like the masher San Francisco had signed up for.

In just 90 games with the Giants after the trade, he launched 20 home runs with a 126 wRC+. Sure, the batting average was a bit lower than career norms and the strikeout rate was slightly elevated, but the organization had no worries heading into the 2026 campaign.

A Poorly-Timed Slow Start

Fast-forward to spring training of this year, and Giants media members and beat reporters were handing out glowing reviews of Devers. It was his first camp with the club and he was impressing everybody who spent time around the organization.

Unfortunately, Devers dealt with some left hamstring issues, forcing him to miss some time during the Cactus League and eventually have a pretty slow spring overall.

From the early returns, that level of play has continued into the regular season. Through a league-leading 21 games this year, Devers is slashing just .212/.256/.306 with two home runs and a mere 56 wRC+.

His hard hit rate is below 50% for the first time since 2020 and his average exit velocity is just about three miles an hour lower than what he’s posted across the last few years.

Too Early to Panic?

Of course, it’s less than three weeks into the regular season and it’s Rafael Devers we’re talking about. If this stretch happened in the middle of August in the midst of one of his normal seasons, we wouldn’t even be talking about this.

An abysmal start form the Giants offense has a whole, on the other hand, has placed a spotlight on the 29-year-old. As a team, San Francisco ranks second-last in home runs (13) with the fifth-lowest amount of runs scored (75), while ranking 26th in runs batted in and 28th in on base percentage.

Once Devers gets going, that should be the ignition this offense needs to get going. For the first time in what feels like decades, San Francisco was supposed to be led by their offense. A core of Devers, Adames, and Matt Chapman with a strong support system of Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, and Luis Arraez was supposed to carry a questionable pitching staff.

However, it’s been the exact opposite. The staff has been encouraging overall, but the offense has drowned.

When he’s on, Devers has the ability to carry a team with his bat. The Giants were forced to take the risk of acquiring Devers. They needed a middle-of-the-order anchor that you could pencil in for 30 or more home runs and close to 90 RBI every season.

They’ve gotten a shell of that guy through the first few weeks of 2026.

Will he turn things around soon, or is it already a lost season for Devers and San Francisco? They say you can’t win a season through the first month, but you can certainly lose it. Time will tell how this year’s Giants come out on the other side.