Three weeks into the Rafael Devers era, the San Francisco Giants find themselves sitting in the third wild-card spot even though Devers has been merely solid rather than great through 20 games. He’s hitting .240/.348/.387 with two home runs for the Giants after slashing .272/.401/.504 with 15 homers in 73 games with the Boston Red Sox.
Not surprisingly, Devers has only DHed with San Francisco, though he has worked out at first base in preparation for seeing game action there. Devers has never played first base at any level and refused to do so with the Red Sox following Triston Casas’ season-ending knee injury. Red Sox brass made it no secret that was a factor in the decision to trade him.
The Giants arranged for franchise icon Will Clark, a Gold Glove first baseman during his playing career, to help Devers prepare at first base soon after the trade. The problem? Devers no-showed, according to the six-time All-Star. Clark said he understands, however, as this was the weekend the Red Sox were in town, and Devers presumably didn’t want to make a big show of playing first so soon after the trade.
Here’s what Clark said about Devers during an appearance on the No Filter Network:
“Friday, Saturday, Sunday, he did not come out early, at all. Period, not all. In fact, he didn’t even hit on the field,” Clark said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Will. I’m so sorry.'”
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“I know what the (expletive) happened,” Clark said. “I said, he didn’t want to go out and be at first base and be 20 feet in front of their freaking dugout with what went on in Boston, and now he’s working with me at first base. He didn’t want to have to go through all that (expletive) through the press in the media. So, I completely understand.”
Clark also said he will grab Devers by the “back of the neck and drag” him out to first base the next time he’s in town, so it sounds like skipping out on his work when the Red Sox were in town last month was a one-time excuse.
The Giants are 9-11 since the Devers trade (the Red Sox are 10-9) and they just returned home this week following 10-game road trip through Chicago, Arizona, and San Diego. Monday’s win over the Philadelphia Phillies (SF 3, PHI 1) was their first game back in San Francisco following Devers’ first homestand with the team, when he skipped out on Clark.
At 50-42, the Giants are one game up on the NL West rival San Diego Padres for the third wild-card spot.
