It’s become abundantly clear midway through April that the SF Giants do not have a legitimate first baseman on the roster. They have players who can play first base, but they are simply going to be below average at the position. Rafael Devers has proven that point repeatedly as of late.
The slugger is paid for what he does at the plate, which unfortunately hasn’t been much as of late, but his defense is becoming a more and more glaring issue. He just started playing first base again recently after sticking to designated hitter duties at the start of the season as he nursed a tender hamstring and the way he’s played first base makes one wish he went back to the DH spot.
Devers just clearly looks out of his element at first base. There was hope that after he had to learn the position on the fly last season that in year two with San Francisco, especially under the tutelage of renowned infield coach Ron Washington, he would take a big step forward defensively.
Rafael Devers is proving he may be better suited as a designated hitter
That has not come to pass. He made his first error of the season on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles and while that’s the only error that’s been charged to him, he’s made other mistakes as well. In the first inning of the game on Sunday, Devers got completely eaten up by a ground ball hit straight at him.
To his credit he at least knocked it down, but when the ball squirted away from him he fell to the ground and lost his glove in the process. Thankfully, second baseman Christian Koss was able to scurry over, field the ball, and throw it to the pitcher Adrian Houser covering first base for the out but it was a play a normal first baseman would have made with relative ease.
That was not the only time in the series that Devers lost his glove on a play. On Friday night against Baltimore, he tried to scoop a ball out of the dirt from shortstop Willy Adames. Not only did he fail to field the ball, but his glove went flying into the air. The first baseman’s primary job is to catch the ball, as Matt Chapman so helpfully reminded us all earlier this season, so when a first baseman loses his glove, a tool which certainly comes in handy when trying to catch the ball, twice in the same series that is cause for concern.
Devers has also struggled with some throws from Chapman so the deficiencies have been hard to ignore. At some point the Giants are going to have to do something.
The problem is that the other options to play first base are not much better. Casey Schmitt has struggled at the position this year and so has Jerar Encarnacion. Really the defense as a whole has struggled with a few exceptions.
Maybe Bryce Eldridge will be called up at some point and look competent at first base, but the Giants have to do something eventually because Devers is proving he is not a reliable first baseman.
