The San Francisco Giants confirmed Sunday that Rafael Devers is headed to the 60-day injured list with a core muscle injury, ending his season with 13 games still on the schedule. He led the club in home runs (37) and RBI (98), posting a .865 OPS and a wRC+ of 135 — good for third-best in MLB from May 1 onward. Devers is scheduled to visit Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia on Monday; if surgery is recommended, he goes under the knife Tuesday.
He played hurt — and was still the best Giant on the field
According to the team’s statement, Devers had been managing the injury for much of the season and chose to keep playing through the pain. That context makes the numbers hit harder. From May 1 through his placement on the IL, Devers posted a .953 OPS and a wRC+ of 157 — meaning he was 57% more productive than the average MLB hitter over that stretch — ranking behind only Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Álvarez, the frontrunners for MVP. No other Giants regular is anywhere near that conversation.
Devers also made franchise history along the way: he became the seventh player in Giants history to record 35 home runs and 35 doubles in the same season. At the time of his IL placement, he also led all of MLB with 36 doubles on the year.
A 62-87 team, 21 players injured, $211 million still owed
Tony Vitello’s Giants wrapped up his first full season at 62-87, out of the postseason picture and with 21 players on the injured list. Devers is the most recent — and the most expensive. The closest parallel inside the same clubhouse is Matt Chapman, who dealt with a core muscle injury in 2026 and was treated by the same Dr. Meyers. Chapman recovered, and the medical expectation is that Devers will be ready for Spring Training 2027, with a recovery window of two to three months.
The number that doesn’t go away: the Giants still owe Devers $211 million over the next seven years. He’s in year three of the $313.5 million deal he originally signed with Boston in 2023, acquired by San Francisco in June 2025. Through his first full season with the club, he was — by a wide margin — the player who held up his end of the bargain.
To fill his roster spot, the Giants called up Scott Bandura, a 25-year-old outfielder who hit .320/.407/.488 with 13 home runs across Double-A and Triple-A in 2026. It’s Bandura’s MLB debut.
What Statcast says: elite contact, a season that deserved more light
The Statcast numbers tell a clean story. Devers averaged 93 mph exit velocity in 2026, landing in the 96th percentile in MLB — essentially pure elite. His hard-hit rate of 51.6% (94th percentile) means more than half his batted balls left the bat above 95 mph. A barrel rate of 12.5% (82nd percentile) confirms he doesn’t just hit it hard — he hits it right. His xwOBA of .342 suggests the quality of his contact ran slightly ahead of what his .258/.340/.525 slash line shows on the surface.
In a cleaner season, on a winning team, these numbers would have been under a spotlight all year. In San Francisco in 2026, they ended in the quiet of the IL.
The numbers behind the hitter
- 633 plate appearances in 2026
- 37 home runs and 98 RBI
- AVG: .258
- OPS: .865
- xwOBA: .342
- Average exit velocity: 93 mph
- Barrel rate: 12.5%
- Hard-hit rate: 51.6%
- Average bat speed: 71.9 mph
How he stacks up across MLB:
- xwOBA: 75th percentile
- Exit velocity: 96th percentile (elite)
- Barrel %: 82nd percentile
- Hard-hit %: 94th percentile (elite)
