Rafael Devers spent nearly a decade as one of the worst defensive third basemen in baseball. He accumulated -62 career DRS at the hot corner with the Red Sox and led the league in errors from 2018 onward. In 2026, he’s the starting first baseman for the San Francisco Giants — and his defensive metrics are above average: +2 DRS and +3 rPM in 748.0 innings. The same glove Boston essentially asked him to put away is now saving his new team runs.
The Track Record That Made This Unthinkable
Over eight seasons as Boston’s third baseman, Devers never posted a positive DRS in any full campaign. From 2022 to 2024, he put up -24 DRS and -17 OAA — the worst marks among full-time third basemen in the league during that stretch. For context: Alex Bregman, who arrived in Boston in the spring of 2025, posted +7 DRS and +11 OAA over that same period.
The Red Sox acted on the numbers. With Bregman on the roster heading into 2025, the organization told Devers he would be a full-time designated hitter. He pushed back. When Triston Casas got hurt weeks later and the team asked Devers to cover first base, he refused that too. His explanation, offered later once he was already with the Giants, was that Boston had never given him the time or preparation to learn the position properly.
The trade came in June 2025. The irony followed almost immediately: once in San Francisco, Devers agreed without any drama. On July 22, 2025, he made his first career start at first base against the Braves — played errorless ball, went 2-for-5 with an RBI, and the Giants won 9-0.
The 2026 Numbers Nobody Saw Coming
DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) measures how many runs a defender saves compared to the league average at his position. A +2 doesn’t make Devers a Gold Glove candidate, but it puts him on the right side of the ledger — something he never managed in his entire career at third base. The +3 rPM points the same direction: three runs of defensive value above average across a sample of 748 innings, large enough to be meaningful.
Giants GM Zack Minasian said before the season that he considered Devers the best available defender for first base on his club. Given the current numbers, that’s looking less like organizational loyalty and more like an assessment that’s actually holding up on the field.
To be precise: Devers is not an elite first baseman. He’s not in the Gold Glove conversation and he’s not close to the best defenders at the position in the league. What’s new — and real — is that he’s no longer a liability. Coming from the defensive history he carries, that’s a transformation the data backs up.
The Full Picture on Devers in 2026
The defensive improvement doesn’t exist in a vacuum. At the plate, Devers remains a genuine threat: .250/.324/.481 with 23 home runs, 62 RBI, and 60 runs scored in 112 games. His OPS+ of 130 puts him 30% above the league-average hitter, and his exit velocity of 92.4 mph with a 51% Hard Hit rate per Statcast confirm the contact is still among the hardest in the game.
Over his last 30 games, the numbers climb even higher: .280/.388/.561 with 9 home runs and 19 RBI.
That combination — a bat at this level plus a defense that’s no longer costing the team — makes Devers a substantially more valuable player than he was in Boston. All on the same contract that runs through 2033, the one the Red Sox were eager to move.
The most compelling storyline in the Bay this season might be this: the player they told to put the glove away is proving the glove was never really the problem.
