The San Francisco Giants scratched Rafael Devers from the lineup against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday with a hamstring issue. Devers joined San Francisco in June in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox.
“Giants say tight left hamstring for Rafael Devers. Scratched from lineup today,” wrote John Shea of the San Francisco Standard.
Devers has played in three spring training games so far this year with brutal results. He is 0-8 with one walk and one RBI, which is not the start that Giants fans were hoping for. The games don't count yet, but things could not be going worse for the 29-year-old slugger.
The Giants used Devers as the designated hitter for most of his tenure. But when he played the field, it was at first base. He refused to play first base with the Red Sox, which prompted the move during the season. The Giants have young prospect Bryce Eldridge, who can also play first and may keep Devers off his feet for much of this season.
The Giants have hovered around .500 in each of the last four seasons, never finishing with fewer than 79 wins or more than 81 wins. Bringing in Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Devers should invigorate their offense compared to previous years. But the pitching staff is weaker than in previous years, with Blake Snell and Justin Verlander out the door.
The Giants are also trying a new experiment this year, hiring Tony Vitello out of the University of Tennessee. He is the first manager ever to make the jump from college directly to the big chair. Buster Posey is pushing a lot of buttons running his former team, but will it work?
