Article: Rafael Devers’ Best Defensive Plays of the Season

[Davy Andrews]

Yeah, he makes great defensive plays sometimes! Let’s watch.

We’ve spent a lot of time this offseason talking about the defense of Rafael Devers. We’ve spent so much time on it. I’m not saying we haven’t done so for good reason – that defense is undeniably, likely irredeemably bad – but still, in this holiday season, maybe it’s time we focus on the good stuff. Toward that end, I’m going to watch just about every play Devers made this season. Statcast says there were 275 of them. I’ll be on the hunt for the gems. Sure, he didn’t get to enough balls and he made too many errors, but there were also some gems. I’m going to mine them and present them to you. Please feel free to stuff them in your stocking or whatever else you might have. This is the best of the best when it comes to Devers’ Defense.

As a note, Statcast presents these plays in reverse chronological order, so I’m starting with a play Devers made to catch Yandy Díaz on September 19, and then I’m working backward. Keep in mind, at this point Devers’ shoulders were so hurt that he would only get into one more game before calling it a season.

Right out of the gate, we’ve got a beautiful barehanded play on a soft chopper. Devers makes a great read and charges hard. He makes the play look easy, but notice how low the ball is when Devers grabs it. Catching it on the long hop like that meant that he couldn’t slow down at all to make the play; he had to do it at full speed, and he still snagged it cleanly and made a perfect throw to first. Devers actually made a somewhat similar play earlier in the game, charging and gloving a different soft chopper from Díaz.

I know the next one isn’t the prettiest play you’ll ever see, but it honestly might be the most impressive of the entire bunch.

Yup, that’s Devers simultaneously securing a popup from Anthony Rizzo and breaking a tackle from Trevor Story. Not only did Devers have to avoid the sack, he also had to keep his eye on the ball while he felt Story bearing down on him. That’s just pure pocket presence. Then, when the ball understandably popped out of his glove, he had to make a bobbling circus catch to corral it for good.

Alright, that one was silly, but check out this next one. It’s legitimately great.

That’s why the call it the hot corner. Judge hits an absolute rocket to Devers’ glove side. The ball comes off his bat at 104.7 mph with an extremely difficult trajectory. Devers has to make a diving play while also fielding an awkward short hop, and he does it perfectly cleanly. Then he makes a pinpoint throw to second in order to stop a double play. Even the often-curmudgeonly John Smoltz was awed. “Wow,” said Smoltz. “I mean, that’s as good as it gets.” Guess what. This next one came in the very same game.

Volpe didn’t crush the ball like Judge, but Devers was playing in, which gave him very little reaction time. He still managed to make a sliding play in the other direction, execute a nifty spin move, and take a moment to make sure that he unleashed an accurate throw. It even elicited another “Wow” from Smoltz. Kindly ignore the fact that Devers made an error in between these two great plays.

This one’s not quite as snazzy but watch how hard Devers has to charge to make this play.

He gets a nice easy hop, but that’s because he worked for it! If he hadn’t made such a good read or charged the ball so hard, he would’ve had to scoop a long hop or stab a short hop, and he certainly wouldn’t have been able to catch Jose Iglesias at first base. The throw is also impressive for a couple reasons. For one, Devers is still charging very hard and despite being on the move, he’s right on the money. The second reason is how relaxed Devers looked. Iglesias is out by the barest fraction of a second, but Devers never rushed at all. He knew exactly how much time he had and made a strong, perfectly accurate throw. This play is not as easy as Devers made it look.

Our last play came on another ball that Devers had to charge hard.

Pete Alonso chops one weakly right up the line, and Devers is immediately on his horse. He scoops it up with his glove and gets it out extremely quickly. The throw isn’t his best, but it’s good enough. I’m not sure I realized that Devers’ hands were this fast. Once again, Devers knows exactly how much time he has.

At this point I need to let you in on a secret. These were not the best plays Devers made all year. Remember how I said I was going through these in reverse chronological order? Well, we haven’t even gotten out of September yet. Devers played in just 17 games in September, and he made all of these impressive plays! We’ll just have to continue this series later in the week, so stay with us as we continue documenting the occasional defensive genius of Rafael Devers.

View full article

[moonslav59]

Devers has shown glimpses of being a good defender, especially with his glove and range. His issue is mostly with his inaccurate arm. Nearly half his career errors are throwing. This is one reason I'd like to see him at 1B, this year.