While the offensive surge from Rafael Devers has been one of the highlights to an otherwise bleak season, he deserves more national attention.
While it’s almost guaranteed that Mike Trout will probably win the AL MVP award this year, Rafael Devers has turned a huge corner this season. His .321 batting average, 23 homers, and 87 rbi’s to go along with 147 hits was not to be expected.
Although these numbers are good, here’s why they are crucial to my point. He ranks second in the AL in RBIs, batting average, and runs scored, and first in hits. Being in the top five in most offensive categories for a player his age of 22 is almost unheard of.
What might distract people from his offensive stats are his defensive struggles. He leads his position in the AL in errors with 17. While also in seventh for fielding percentage with .946. While expecting greatness on both aspects of the game are unfair due to his development time in the minors and his age. He only played in 406 career MILB games, compared to the 293 big league games.
He also failed to make the all star game, probably being the biggest snub of all in 2019. While he will definitely become a great candidate for most improved player, his 2019 season will go down as one of the most under appreciated, at least in this decade.
While he will have to wait for that MVP award, for now Devers and teammate Xander Bogaerts will continue to trend upward as fan favorites within the near future.
