But we don’t even know if he is having shoulder issues this year, let alone career-threatening ones. This is what happens when you try to medically diagnose a player from his baseball stats.
Yes his K’s are concerning and high for even players who make contact about as often as NASA, but it’s also 3 days for a guy adjusting to a new role. Some players don’t like DHing because, as Jim Rice (I think) once said “it’s like pinch hitting 4 times in a game.”
If Devers’ shoulders are still sore, Cora shouldn’t play him and maybe he needs IL time. And the irony there is if Devers does hit the shelf, all the people screaming to unload Yoshida at any cost might finally stop their chanting and realize why not doing so was a good thing.
But if Devers can’t get into pinch hitting 4 times in a game, maybe it just takes him a bit to adjust…